Allstate Corp Makes New Investment in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII)

Allstate Corp purchased a new position in shares of Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 938 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Lennox International during the fourth quarter worth approximately $567,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 27.0% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 3,960 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,393,000 after buying an additional 841 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 681 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $415,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in Lennox International by 1,065.7% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,670 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,635,000 after buying an additional 7,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eukles Asset Management bought a new position in Lennox International in the 4th quarter worth $447,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LII has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upgraded shares of Lennox International from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $665.00 to $702.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Lennox International in a report on Monday, January 6th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $595.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $580.00 price target (down from $630.00) on shares of Lennox International in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Lennox International from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Lennox International from $536.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $614.62.

Lennox International Stock Performance

NYSE LII opened at $563.77 on Wednesday. Lennox International Inc. has a twelve month low of $445.63 and a twelve month high of $682.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market cap of $20.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.01, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $600.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $615.74.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $5.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $1.48. Lennox International had a return on equity of 126.79% and a net margin of 15.11%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lennox International Inc. will post 22.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennox International Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Lennox International’s payout ratio is presently 20.41%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 194 shares of Lennox International stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.20, for a total transaction of $124,974.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $825,864.40. This trade represents a 13.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 10.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lennox International Company Profile

Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name.