The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) Receives $86.00 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-three analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $86.00.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $76.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. CICC Research initiated coverage on Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Friday, December 27th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $82.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lowered their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $71.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Akhil Shrivastava acquired 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $65.79 per share, for a total transaction of $46,053.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $156,645.99. This trade represents a 41.64 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 43,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $66.35 per share, with a total value of $2,853,050.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 430,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,583,580. This represents a 11.09 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,599,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 23.7% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 34,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,421,000 after acquiring an additional 6,569 shares during the last quarter. River Global Investors LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter. River Global Investors LLP now owns 14,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,573 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 85,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,526,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

Estée Lauder Companies Stock Performance

EL stock opened at $66.64 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.92 billion, a PE ratio of -34.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.08. Estée Lauder Companies has a 12-month low of $62.29 and a 12-month high of $155.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.65.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a positive return on equity of 16.82% and a negative net margin of 4.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. Estée Lauder Companies’s payout ratio is presently -71.79%.

Estée Lauder Companies Company Profile

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.