Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG – Get Rating) by 74.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,499 shares of the company’s stock after selling 86,937 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.10% of Big Lots worth $912,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Big Lots by 32.5% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 503 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its position in Big Lots by 8.0% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 6,633 shares of the company’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in Big Lots by 1.2% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 30,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,045,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Big Lots in the first quarter valued at $391,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in Big Lots by 58.5% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 16,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $581,000 after purchasing an additional 6,194 shares during the period.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of research firms have commented on BIG. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Big Lots from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 2nd. TheStreet downgraded Big Lots from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a research report on Monday, December 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Big Lots from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. Telsey Advisory Group cut their price objective on Big Lots from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Big Lots from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Thursday, January 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.00.
Big Lots Trading Up 0.1 %
BIG opened at $16.38 on Monday. Big Lots, Inc. has a 12 month low of $12.87 and a 12 month high of $40.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $474.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.13 and a beta of 1.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.18. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $16.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.59.
Big Lots (NYSE:BIG – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 1st. The company reported ($2.99) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.92) by ($0.07). Big Lots had a negative return on equity of 12.03% and a negative net margin of 2.62%. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Big Lots, Inc. will post -5.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Big Lots Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 14th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 13th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.33%. Big Lots’s payout ratio is -22.94%.
About Big Lots
Big Lots, Inc engages in the operation of retail stores. It operates through the Discount Retailing segment which includes merchandising categories such as furniture, seasonal, soft home, food, consumables, hard home, and electronics, toys, and accessories. The company was founded by Sol A. Shenk in 1967 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH.