Alps Advisors Inc. Buys New Holdings in Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. $SWBI

Alps Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWBI) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 43,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $618,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Smith & Wesson Brands during the second quarter valued at about $61,549,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Smith & Wesson Brands by 5.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,616,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,492,000 after buying an additional 143,069 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Smith & Wesson Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,423,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Smith & Wesson Brands by 68.0% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 364,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,230,000 after acquiring an additional 147,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in Smith & Wesson Brands by 43.4% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 166,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,505,000 after acquiring an additional 50,429 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 59.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Smith & Wesson Brands in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $16.50.

Smith & Wesson Brands Stock Performance

Shares of SWBI stock opened at $15.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $702.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.83 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.10 and a 200 day moving average of $14.15. Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $8.14 and a 52 week high of $17.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 3.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Smith & Wesson Brands (NASDAQ:SWBI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $112.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.70 million. Smith & Wesson Brands had a net margin of 4.44% and a return on equity of 6.60%. Smith & Wesson Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 32.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Smith & Wesson Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Smith & Wesson Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 96.30%.

Smith & Wesson Brands Company Profile

Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets firearms and related products. Its offerings include handguns and long guns sold under the Smith & Wesson and M&P brands, as well as firearms accessories and products from its Performance Center and other specialized lines. Founded in 1852 by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson in Springfield, Massachusetts, the company has a long history in the American firearms industry. It later moved its headquarters to Tennessee. Smith & Wesson serves customers in the United States and international markets through retail and distribution channels.