Lear (NYSE:LEA) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lear (NYSE:LEA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Lear from $130.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Lear from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Lear from $177.00 to $179.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Lear from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Benchmark increased their target price on shares of Lear from $188.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $162.44.

Lear Stock Performance

LEA opened at $135.15 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $7.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.96, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.54. Lear has a 1-year low of $117.79 and a 1-year high of $157.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $138.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.12 by ($0.09). Lear had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 2.44%. The company had revenue of $5.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.81 EPS. Lear’s revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Lear will post 14.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lear news, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 10,652 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.86, for a total transaction of $1,415,224.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,810,483.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Lear news, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 10,652 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.86, for a total transaction of $1,415,224.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,810,483.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Jason M. Cardew sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.81, for a total transaction of $387,227.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 17,506 shares in the company, valued at $2,465,019.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lear

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LEA. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lear during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $79,611,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 970.4% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 540,850 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $76,373,000 after purchasing an additional 490,324 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 236.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 577,690 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $77,526,000 after purchasing an additional 405,875 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 66.5% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 981,669 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $138,595,000 after purchasing an additional 391,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lyrical Asset Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 55.4% during the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,067,888 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $150,796,000 after purchasing an additional 380,771 shares in the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lear Company Profile

Lear Corporation designs, develops, engineers, manufactures, assembles, and supplies automotive seating, and electrical distribution systems and related components for automotive original equipment manufacturers in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Its Seating segment offers seat systems, seat subsystems, keyseat components, seat trim covers, seat mechanisms, seat foams, and headrests, as well as surface materials, such as leather and fabric for automobiles and light trucks, compact cars, pick-up trucks, and sport utility vehicles.