Estée Lauder Companies Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:EL)

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 57,215 call options on the company. This is an increase of 238% compared to the average daily volume of 16,906 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group boosted 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. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. CICC Research initiated coverage on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Friday, December 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $82.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Hsbc Global Res cut Estée Lauder Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 75,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.93 per share, with a total value of $4,902,215.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 310,000 shares in the company, valued at $20,128,300. This represents a 32.20 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Centre Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $8,585,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 141,804 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,392,000 after buying an additional 45,687 shares during the period. Harrell Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $771,000 after buying an additional 3,524 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 79.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,723,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $570,600,000 after buying an additional 2,533,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co boosted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 729.4% during the third quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co now owns 47,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,735,000 after buying an additional 41,773 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

Estée Lauder Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:EL opened at $65.79 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $23.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.49, a P/E/G ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 1.03. Estée Lauder Companies has a twelve month low of $62.29 and a twelve month high of $159.54. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $77.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 1.31% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The business’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 250.00%.

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.