Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

SIG has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Signet Jewelers from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Signet Jewelers from $145.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Signet Jewelers in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Signet Jewelers from $108.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.60.

Signet Jewelers Stock Up 6.1 %

Shares of NYSE SIG opened at $97.30 on Wednesday. Signet Jewelers has a 52-week low of $68.15 and a 52-week high of $112.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $92.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $91.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 2.12.

Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 12th. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Signet Jewelers had a return on equity of 29.90% and a net margin of 8.58%. Signet Jewelers’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Signet Jewelers will post 10.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Signet Jewelers Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th will be given a dividend of $0.29 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 25th. Signet Jewelers’s payout ratio is currently 13.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Signet Jewelers

In related news, CEO Virginia Drosos sold 3,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.67, for a total value of $353,303.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 775,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,829,326.15. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Virginia Drosos sold 3,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.67, for a total value of $353,303.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 775,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,829,326.15. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Eugenia Ulasewicz sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.63, for a total value of $332,066.79. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,598,848.55. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,957 shares of company stock worth $5,910,256 in the last ninety days. 3.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Signet Jewelers

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SIG. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Signet Jewelers by 63.3% in the 2nd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 16,974 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,521,000 after purchasing an additional 6,579 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Signet Jewelers in the first quarter valued at $1,093,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Signet Jewelers by 97.3% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 45,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,562,000 after buying an additional 22,482 shares during the period. Boston Partners acquired a new position in Signet Jewelers during the 1st quarter worth about $1,088,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Signet Jewelers by 209.7% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 25,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,511,000 after acquiring an additional 16,990 shares during the period.

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.