Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $92.83.

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Brunswick from $91.00 to $86.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. B. Riley raised shares of Brunswick from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $100.00 to $108.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $94.00 target price on shares of Brunswick in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. BNP Paribas restated a “neutral” rating and set a $82.00 price target (down previously from $94.00) on shares of Brunswick in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped 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.

Brunswick Stock Up 2.6 %

BC stock opened at $83.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.58 and a beta of 1.60. Brunswick has a 12 month low of $66.47 and a 12 month high of $99.68. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

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

Brunswick Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. Brunswick’s payout ratio is currently 31.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David M. Foulkes sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.11, for a total transaction of $3,048,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 272,626 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,748,450.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO David M. Foulkes sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.11, for a total value of $3,048,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 272,626 shares in the company, valued at $23,748,450.86. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ryan M. Gwillim sold 9,036 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.10, for a total transaction of $787,035.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,522,938.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 46,819 shares of company stock worth $4,075,920. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Brunswick

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Brunswick by 140.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,435,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,393,000 after purchasing an additional 2,006,578 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Brunswick by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,972,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,794,000 after purchasing an additional 9,465 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Brunswick by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,917,051 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,483,000 after purchasing an additional 47,053 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Brunswick during the 1st quarter worth approximately $124,840,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Brunswick by 32.1% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,144,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,712,000 after purchasing an additional 278,082 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.34% of the company’s stock.

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.