Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on shares of Lifetime Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Lifetime Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of Lifetime Brands from $3.50 to $5.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Lifetime Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.00.

Lifetime Brands Trading Down 17.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:LCUT opened at $5.91 on Friday. Lifetime Brands has a 12-month low of $2.90 and a 12-month high of $8.20. The stock has a market cap of $135.04 million, a PE ratio of -4.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day moving average of $5.44 and a 200-day moving average of $4.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 2.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.22. Lifetime Brands had a negative net margin of 4.22% and a positive return on equity of 8.08%. The company had revenue of $143.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.58 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lifetime Brands will post 0.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Lifetime Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.0425 per share. This represents a $0.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 1st. Lifetime Brands’s payout ratio is currently -13.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JB Capital Partners LP raised its position in Lifetime Brands by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. JB Capital Partners LP now owns 1,627,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,430,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in Lifetime Brands by 388.4% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 51,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 41,191 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Lifetime Brands by 0.5% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 913,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,535,000 after purchasing an additional 4,703 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC raised its position in Lifetime Brands by 3.8% during the third quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 243,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $942,000 after purchasing an additional 8,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Lifetime Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $118,000. 40.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lifetime Brands Company Profile

Lifetime Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources, manufactures and distributes a broad portfolio of consumer products for the home. Headquartered in Garden City, New York, the company operates three primary business segments—Kitchenware, Tabletop & Home Décor and Tools & Storage—providing solutions for food preparation, cooking, serving and storage under both proprietary and licensed brand names.

In the Kitchenware segment, Lifetime Brands offers cookware, bakeware, cutlery and small electric appliances under brands such as Farberware and Chef’sChoice.