Reassessing The Changing Outlook For Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (WOOF)

With over 3.79 million Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (WOOF) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $4.79 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $18.16 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -50.05% and its price on 09/12/23 lost nearly -2.64%. Currently, there are 267.16M common shares owned by the public and among those 82.03M shares have been available to trade.

An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 14 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WOOF have a consensus price objective of $6.77. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $10.00 and a low of $4.00. The average price target is 29.25% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -19.75% over that period. But an upside of 52.1% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $7.00.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 83 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 31 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,527,066 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 52 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 400,048 shares.

Shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) opened at $4.90, down -$0.02 from a prior closing price of $4.92. However, the script later moved the day high at 4.9100, down -2.64%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -6.99% and -45.26% over the past three months. WOOF shares are trading -49.47% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -69.10% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $4.85 and touched a high of $15.85 over the same period. WOOF has an average intraday trading volume of 3.63 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -17.68%, -34.46%, and -47.90% respectively.

Institutional ownership of Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) shares accounts for 64.80% of the company’s 267.16M shares outstanding.

It has a market capitalization of $1.47B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.22. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 35.22, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.14. The company has a PEG of 0.72 and a Quick Ratio of 0.30 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.66. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.88% over the week and 4.08% over the month.

Analysts forecast that Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (WOOF) will achieve an EPS of $0.02 for the current quarter, $0.14 for the next quarter and $0.36 for 2025. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.03. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.16 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -44.90%, and 30.29% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 48.80% over the next five years, compared to 18.20% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 14 brokerage firm advisors rate Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc. (WOOF) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 6 of the 14 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”

Looking at the support for the WOOF, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. RBC Capital Mkts stated their Outperform rating for the stock in a research note on August 25, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $10-$7.