South Dakota Investment Council Grows Position in Bath & Body Works, Inc. $BBWI

South Dakota Investment Council raised its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 484,182 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,898 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Bath & Body Works were worth $14,506,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,016,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,029,000 after buying an additional 781,681 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Bath & Body Works by 14,732.0% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,798,108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $206,119,000 after acquiring an additional 6,752,274 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Bath & Body Works by 4.7% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,422,058 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,397,000 after acquiring an additional 243,611 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 267.8% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,993,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,073,000 after purchasing an additional 2,907,506 shares during the period. Finally, GMT Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. GMT Capital Corp now owns 3,737,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,327,000 after purchasing an additional 255,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BBWI. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $32.00 to $28.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Bath & Body Works from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of Bath & Body Works in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Bath & Body Works from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 29th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.39.

Bath & Body Works Stock Up 2.3%

BBWI opened at $24.48 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $27.01 and its 200-day moving average is $28.99. Bath & Body Works, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.49 and a 52-week high of $41.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.52.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Bath & Body Works had a net margin of 9.88% and a negative return on equity of 48.43%. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Bath & Body Works has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.370-0.45 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 3.350-3.600 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Bath & Body Works, Inc. will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bath & Body Works Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 22nd. Bath & Body Works’s payout ratio is presently 23.74%.

Bath & Body Works Company Profile

Bath & Body Works, Inc is a specialty retailers and home to America’s Favorite Fragrances, offering a breadth of exclusive fragrances for the body and home, including the selling collections for fine fragrance mist, body lotion and body cream, 3-wick candles, home fragrance diffusers and liquid hand soap.