Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Receives $140.25 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $140.25.

A number of analysts have commented on LEA shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays cut shares of Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $120.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Lear from $114.00 to $106.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

Lear Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:LEA opened at $98.38 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Lear has a one year low of $92.14 and a one year high of $147.11. The company has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 10.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $109.74.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The firm had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.87 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lear will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.13%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LEA. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Lear by 151.9% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,049 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 3,648 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 8.1% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 101,138 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $11,551,000 after purchasing an additional 7,556 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Lear in the second quarter worth $663,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Lear during the second quarter valued at $222,000. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Lear during the second quarter worth about $1,388,000. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.