Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) Short Interest Up 6.5% in April

Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,780,000 shares, an increase of 6.5% from the March 31st total of 4,490,000 shares. Currently, 7.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 762,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.3 days.

Insider Activity at Brunswick

In related news, Director Nancy E. Cooper sold 357 shares of Brunswick stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.34, for a total transaction of $28,681.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,211 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,771.74. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Nancy E. Cooper sold 357 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.34, for a total value of $28,681.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,211 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,771.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Christopher F. Dekker sold 6,234 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.53, for a total transaction of $526,960.02. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 35,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,973,427.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 53,053 shares of company stock worth $4,602,880 in the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brunswick

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Brunswick by 224.7% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 49,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,906,000 after purchasing an additional 34,220 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Brunswick by 127.6% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 866,226 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,432,000 after buying an additional 485,588 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Brunswick in the 4th quarter worth $20,460,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Brunswick by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 144,584 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,422,000 after acquiring an additional 32,901 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 10.6% during the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 156,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,371,000 after acquiring an additional 15,042 shares during the period. 99.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BC. B. Riley raised shares of Brunswick from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $100.00 to $108.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Raymond James lowered Brunswick from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Brunswick from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Brunswick from $88.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $94.00 target price on shares of Brunswick in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.83.

Brunswick Trading Down 0.4 %

Brunswick stock opened at $80.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. Brunswick has a 12 month low of $66.47 and a 12 month high of $99.68. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.04. The stock has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.93 and a beta of 1.60.

Brunswick (NYSE:BC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by ($0.01). Brunswick had a return on equity of 25.37% and a net margin of 6.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.57 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Brunswick will post 7.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brunswick Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 26th were paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from Brunswick’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Brunswick’s payout ratio is presently 31.23%.

About Brunswick

Brunswick Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets recreation products in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Propulsion, Engine P&A, Navico Group, and Boat. The Propulsion segment provides outboard, sterndrive, inboard engines, propulsion-related controls, rigging, and propellers for boat builders through marine retail dealers under the Mercury, Mercury MerCruiser, Mariner, Mercury Racing, Mercury Diesel, Avator, and Fliteboard brands.