Bridgewater Associates LP Raises Stock Position in Newell Brands Inc. (NASDAQ:NWL)

Bridgewater Associates LP grew its holdings in Newell Brands Inc. (NASDAQ:NWL) by 374.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 66,405 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 52,397 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Newell Brands were worth $661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Newell Brands by 233.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,527,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,695,000 after purchasing an additional 10,172,696 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Newell Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $72,431,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Newell Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,174,000. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in Newell Brands by 109.2% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,720,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,980,000 after acquiring an additional 2,986,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Newell Brands by 214.1% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,349,136 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,357,000 after purchasing an additional 2,282,949 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Newell Brands from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on Newell Brands from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup cut their target price on Newell Brands from $7.75 to $4.75 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Newell Brands from $8.00 to $5.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Newell Brands from $8.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.14.

Newell Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NWL stock opened at $4.70 on Friday. Newell Brands Inc. has a 52-week low of $4.22 and a 52-week high of $11.78. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $6.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a PE ratio of -9.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.84.

Newell Brands (NASDAQ:NWL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. Newell Brands had a positive return on equity of 9.76% and a negative net margin of 2.85%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Newell Brands Inc. will post 0.72 EPS for the current year.

Newell Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.96%. Newell Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently -53.85%.

About Newell Brands

Newell Brands Inc engages in the design, manufacture, sourcing, and distribution of consumer and commercial products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Home and Commercial Solutions, Learning and Development, and Outdoor and Recreation. The Commercial Solutions segment provides commercial cleaning and maintenance solution products under the Rubbermaid, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Mapa, and Spontex brands; closet and garage organization products; hygiene systems and material handling solutions; household products, such as kitchen appliances under the Crockpot, Mr.