Stifel Nicolaus Cuts Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Price Target to $77.00

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) had its target price lowered by Stifel Nicolaus from $81.00 to $77.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a hold rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Citigroup cut Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $76.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $76.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Tuesday. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.00.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

NYSE EL opened at $65.09 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $76.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.23, a PEG ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.90. Estée Lauder Companies has a 1-year low of $62.29 and a 1-year high of $159.54.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 1.31%. The company’s revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. Estée Lauder Companies’s payout ratio is 250.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Akhil Shrivastava purchased 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was bought 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 owns 2,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $156,645.99. The trade was a 41.64 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg purchased 77,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was bought at an average price of $64.01 per share, with a total value of $4,960,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 234,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,010,345. This represents a 49.36 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 196,700 shares of company stock worth $12,762,093 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.78% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EL. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 79.4% during 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 81.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,971,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,807,000 after buying an additional 1,330,840 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 80.8% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,934,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,510,000 after buying an additional 1,310,900 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 36.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,041,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $402,938,000 after buying an additional 1,078,926 shares during the period. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 695.4% during the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,123,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,994,000 after acquiring an additional 982,183 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

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.