Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Rating Lowered to Hold at Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on EL. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $165.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $136.00 to $117.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.36.

Estée Lauder Companies Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:EL opened at $90.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Estée Lauder Companies has a 12-month low of $82.39 and a 12-month high of $159.75.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.39. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 2.50% and a return on equity of 16.91%. The company had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Estée Lauder Companies will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 148.31%.

Insider Activity at Estée Lauder Companies

In other news, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total value of $315,963.41. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 49,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,578,114. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total value of $315,963.41. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 49,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,578,114. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lynn Forester sold 3,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.61, for a total transaction of $364,142.90. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,209 shares in the company, valued at $1,423,714.49. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Estée Lauder Companies

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EL. Armistice Capital LLC raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 111.8% during the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 182,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,398,000 after acquiring an additional 96,239 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the 1st quarter valued at $997,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 3,065.6% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,983,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,439 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies in the second quarter worth $6,043,000. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Estée Lauder Companies during the second quarter worth $558,000. 55.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Estée Lauder Companies

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.