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Friday, March 29, 2024

Morgan Stanley Upgrades Brown Shoe Company To Equal Weight

Courtesy of Benzinga.

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Morgan Stanley Upgrades Brown Shoe To Equal-weight

Analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded Brown Shoe Company (NYSE: BWS) on Monday from Underweight to Equal Weight and lowered their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $26.50. Brown Shoe Company produces and sells men’s and women’s shoes.

Potential For Downside

Brown stock is up more than 4 percent in early trading Monday on news of the upgrade. The stock is currently trading at about $30.00.

Morgan Stanley’s $26.50 price target represents about a 12 percent downside for the stock from current levels. Brown stock has had a decent year in 2014, up more than 6 percent year to date.

Other Analyst Action

Morgan Stanley is not the only firm to weigh in on Brown Shoe Company lately.

Jefferies Group initiated coverage of Brown this month, issuing a Hold rating and setting a price target for the stock of $32.00. In November, Zacks upgraded Brown from Neutral to Outperform and set a $34.10 target for the stock.

Finally, Buckingham Research downgraded Brown in November from Buy to Neutral.

Insider Selling

Back in September of this year, Brown Shoe Company CEO Diane Sullivan sold over $1.1 million of Brown stock at a price of $30.02 per share.

Chief Accounting Officer Daniel Karpel and Division President John Mazurk each joined Sullivan in selling about $150,000 worth of Brown stock at around the same time.

A Valuation Perspective

Brown Shoe Company’s price to earnings ratio (P/E) is about 17.5, which is very close to average for the overall S&P 500.

Its forward P/E ratio is a more appealing 15, while Brown’s current debt-to-equity ratio of 0.4 is reasonable for the footwear and apparel sector.

Latest Ratings for BWS

Date Firm Action From To
Dec 2014 Morgan Stanley Upgrades Underweight Equal-weight
Nov 2014 Sterne Agee Upgrades Neutral Buy
Oct 2014 Morgan Stanley Initiates Coverage on Underweight

View More Analyst Ratings for BWS
View the Latest Analyst Ratings

Posted-In: Upgrades Price Target Analyst Ratings

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