Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) CEO Sells $2,293,835.60 in Stock

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) CEO Corie S. Barry sold 28,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.80, for a total transaction of $2,293,835.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 429,159 shares in the company, valued at $35,105,206.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Best Buy Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of BBY stock opened at $81.85 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.85. Best Buy Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $62.30 and a twelve month high of $86.11. The company has a market capitalization of $17.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology retailer reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.21. Best Buy had a net margin of 2.86% and a return on equity of 48.45%. The firm had revenue of $14.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Best Buy Co., Inc. will post 6.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Best Buy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 21st will be paid a $0.94 dividend. This is an increase from Best Buy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.59%. Best Buy’s payout ratio is presently 66.08%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BBY. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Best Buy during the 4th quarter valued at about $231,000. Leo Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Best Buy during the 4th quarter valued at about $215,000. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Best Buy during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Best Buy by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 78,100 shares of the technology retailer’s stock valued at $6,114,000 after acquiring an additional 3,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Best Buy during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BBY has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Best Buy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Monday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Best Buy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $89.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Best Buy from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Best Buy from $69.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Best Buy from $67.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.27.

Best Buy Company Profile

Best Buy Co, Inc engages in the retail of technology products in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Domestic and International. Its stores provide computing and mobile phone products, such as desktops, notebooks, and peripherals; mobile phones comprising related mobile network carrier commissions; networking products; tablets covering e-readers; smartwatches; and consumer electronics consisting of digital imaging, health and fitness products, home theater, portable audio comprising headphones and portable speakers, and smart home products.