Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) Price Target to $80.00

Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $80.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Telsey Advisory Group reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Signet Jewelers in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America dropped their price target on Signet Jewelers from $95.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Signet Jewelers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Signet Jewelers from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.60.

Signet Jewelers Price Performance

Shares of Signet Jewelers stock opened at $58.46 on Thursday. Signet Jewelers has a 52 week low of $45.55 and a 52 week high of $112.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a PE ratio of 6.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 2.20. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $54.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.31.

Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $6.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.39 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $2.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.33 billion. Signet Jewelers had a net margin of 8.57% and a return on equity of 28.69%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $6.73 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Signet Jewelers will post 8.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Signet Jewelers Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 25th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 25th. This is a positive change from Signet Jewelers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. Signet Jewelers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -168.42%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Eugenia Ulasewicz sold 3,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.13, for a total transaction of $180,415.29. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,231,565.76. The trade was a 12.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Signet Jewelers

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Signet Jewelers by 149.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 703 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in shares of Signet Jewelers during the 3rd quarter worth about $77,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Signet Jewelers by 832.9% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Signet Jewelers by 32.9% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 410 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Signet Jewelers by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter.

Signet Jewelers Company Profile

Signet Jewelers Limited operates as a diamond jewelry retailer. It operates through three segments: North America, International, and Other. The North America segment operates jewelry stores in jewelry stores in malls, mall-based kiosks, and off-mall locations in the United States and Canada primarily under the Kay Jewelers, Kay Jewelers Outlet, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, Jared Vault, Zales Outlet, Zales Jewelers, Diamonds Direct, James Allen, Banter by Piercing Pagoda, and Peoples Jewellers names, as well as operates online through its digital banners, James Allen and Blue Nile.