Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Sunday morning.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Lifetime Brands from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Lifetime Brands in a report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Lifetime Brands in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Lifetime Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.00.

Lifetime Brands Price Performance

LCUT opened at $7.33 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $167.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.77, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.92. Lifetime Brands has a 1 year low of $2.90 and a 1 year high of $8.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $5.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.43.

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $143.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $137.58 million. Lifetime Brands had a positive return on equity of 8.01% and a negative net margin of 4.22%. Analysts forecast that Lifetime Brands will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lifetime Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 1st were issued a dividend of $0.0425 per share. This represents a $0.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 1st. Lifetime Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -13.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lifetime Brands

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LCUT. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in Lifetime Brands by 7.3% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 108,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,000 after buying an additional 7,385 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in shares of Lifetime Brands in the second quarter worth about $88,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 16.8% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 908,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,634,000 after purchasing an additional 130,650 shares during the period. Truffle Hound Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 12.8% in the third quarter. Truffle Hound Capital LLC now owns 200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $774,000 after purchasing an additional 22,679 shares during the period. Finally, Royce & Associates LP bought a new position in shares of Lifetime Brands in the third quarter worth about $41,000. 40.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources, manufactures and distributes a broad portfolio of consumer products for the home. Headquartered in Garden City, New York, the company operates three primary business segments—Kitchenware, Tabletop & Home Décor and Tools & Storage—providing solutions for food preparation, cooking, serving and storage under both proprietary and licensed brand names.

In the Kitchenware segment, Lifetime Brands offers cookware, bakeware, cutlery and small electric appliances under brands such as Farberware and Chef’sChoice.