Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Buys 862 Shares of Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,106 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 862 shares during the quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Brunswick were worth $880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BC. Valley National Advisers Inc. purchased a new stake in Brunswick in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Brunswick by 104.7% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 520 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC purchased a new stake in Brunswick in the 1st quarter worth $40,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Brunswick in the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Brunswick in the 1st quarter worth $52,000. 99.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $77.00 price target on shares of Brunswick in a research note on Friday, March 15th. B. Riley upgraded Brunswick from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Brunswick from $88.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Raymond James lowered Brunswick from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised their price objective on Brunswick from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Brunswick currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.08.

Insider Activity at Brunswick

In related news, EVP John G. Buelow sold 2,426 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.12, for a total transaction of $211,353.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,199 shares in the company, valued at $1,237,016.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Brunswick news, CEO David M. Foulkes sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.11, for a total value of $3,048,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 272,626 shares in the company, valued at $23,748,450.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP John G. Buelow sold 2,426 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.12, for a total transaction of $211,353.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 14,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,237,016.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,696 shares of company stock worth $4,574,199 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Brunswick Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of Brunswick stock traded up $1.86 on Friday, hitting $83.94. 885,691 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 657,398. The company has a market cap of $5.78 billion, a PE ratio of 14.11 and a beta of 1.56. Brunswick Co. has a 52 week low of $66.47 and a 52 week high of $99.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $89.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.51.

Brunswick (NYSE:BC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.66 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. Brunswick had a return on equity of 29.78% and a net margin of 6.57%. Brunswick’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.99 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Brunswick Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Brunswick Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. This is an increase from Brunswick’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. Brunswick’s payout ratio is currently 28.24%.

Brunswick Profile

Brunswick Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets recreation products in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Propulsion, Engine P&A, Navico Group, and Boat. The Propulsion segment provides outboard, sterndrive, inboard engines, propulsion-related controls, rigging, and propellers for boat builders through marine retail dealers under the Mercury, Mercury MerCruiser, Mariner, Mercury Racing, Mercury Diesel, Avator, and Fliteboard brands.