5 Best Consumer Discretionary Dividend Stocks To Buy Now

4. Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 46

Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) sells home fragrances, body care, soap and sanitizer products.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, 46 hedge funds out of the 943 funds in Insider Monkey’s proprietary database reported owning stakes in Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI). The total value of these stakes was about $3 billion.

In February, Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, in line with the previous dividend. Forward dividend yield came in at 1.7%. The dividend was payable on March 3.

 Recently, Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) appointed Thomas Kuhn as a new independent member of the board of directors on the recommendation of Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC, a move which has staved off a proxy battle by the hedge fund, according to Wall Street Journal.

Third Point made the following comment about Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“We initiated a position in Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) earlier in the year that we added to significantly in the Fourth Quarter. The company, which sells personal care and home fragrance products, separated from Victoria’s Secret in late 2021 and has struggled to find its footing in the public markets. Bath & Body Works was challenged by the normalization of trends following the pandemic, but also suffered from execution hiccups that made matters worse. On the operations front, the company spent much of 2022 without a permanent CEO, cut guidance multiple times given inventory and cost pressures, and did a poor job communicating meaningful increases in the company’s cost structure as a standalone business. On the capital allocation front, the execution of an accelerated share repurchase program was sloppy at best.

Despite these recent struggles, we believe BBWI can change its equity story, improve its earnings power, and earn a more premium valuation. The recent appointment of a new CEO, Gina Boswell from Unilever, is an encouraging first step…” (Click here to read the full text)