Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on CHWY. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Chewy from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Chewy from $36.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Chewy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Chewy from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Chewy in a research report on Thursday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.72.

Chewy Stock Performance

Shares of Chewy stock opened at $41.62 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $39.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.74, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.75. Chewy has a 52 week low of $19.75 and a 52 week high of $48.62.

Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 11th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.08 billion. Chewy had a net margin of 3.51% and a return on equity of 24.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Chewy will post 0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sumit Singh sold 148,063 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.67, for a total transaction of $6,021,722.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 705,252 shares in the company, valued at $28,682,598.84. This represents a 17.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David Reeder sold 11,582 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.44, for a total transaction of $422,048.08. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 397,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,486,940.64. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 236,046 shares of company stock worth $9,387,635. Corporate insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Chewy

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CHWY. BC Partners PE LP acquired a new position in shares of Chewy during the 1st quarter worth about $7,142,402,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Chewy by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,484,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $485,093,000 after buying an additional 3,493,926 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Chewy during the 4th quarter worth about $79,050,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Chewy by 4,577.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,191,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,381,000 after purchasing an additional 2,144,302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Chewy in the 4th quarter valued at about $69,789,000. 93.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Chewy

Chewy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the pure play e-commerce business in the United States. It provides pet food and treats, pet supplies and pet medications, and other pet-health products, as well as pet services for dogs, cats, fish, birds, small pets, horses, and reptiles through its retail websites and mobile applications.