Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.23.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Credit Suisse Group set a $25.00 target price on shares of Bed Bath & Beyond and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 14th. Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Bed Bath & Beyond from $23.00 to $22.26 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 20th. Loop Capital set a $23.00 target price on shares of Bed Bath & Beyond and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 19th. Telsey Advisory Group reduced their target price on shares of Bed Bath & Beyond from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Bed Bath & Beyond from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 12th.

Get Bed Bath & Beyond alerts:

In related news, insider Eugene A. Castagna sold 25,000 shares of Bed Bath & Beyond stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.81, for a total value of $520,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 124,255 shares in the company, valued at $2,585,746.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond by 47.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,431,514 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $155,987,000 after acquiring an additional 2,403,924 shares in the last quarter. Contrarius Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Contrarius Investment Management Ltd now owns 6,337,044 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $133,015,000 after acquiring an additional 341,596 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond by 557.6% during the 1st quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,840,003 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $59,611,000 after acquiring an additional 2,408,117 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,397,076 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $29,324,000 after acquiring an additional 72,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Towle & Co. grew its holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond by 31.2% during the 1st quarter. Towle & Co. now owns 1,336,180 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $28,046,000 after acquiring an additional 317,610 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.21% of the company’s stock.

Bed Bath & Beyond traded down $0.44, reaching $20.26, during trading on Friday, Marketbeat reports. 4,175,400 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,328,203. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Bed Bath & Beyond has a 1 year low of $16.52 and a 1 year high of $31.15. The company has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of 6.49 and a beta of 1.05.

Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 27th. The retailer reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.02. Bed Bath & Beyond had a net margin of 3.18% and a return on equity of 14.73%. The company had revenue of $2.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. Bed Bath & Beyond’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. sell-side analysts forecast that Bed Bath & Beyond will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 16th. Investors of record on Friday, September 14th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 13th. Bed Bath & Beyond’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.51%.

About Bed Bath & Beyond

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a chain of retail stores. It sells a range of domestics merchandise, including bed linens and related items, bath items, and kitchen textiles; and home furnishings, such as kitchen and tabletop items, fine tabletop, basic housewares, general home furnishings, consumables, and various juvenile products.