The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (EL) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 28th

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.35 per share on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Estée Lauder Companies has increased its dividend by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Estée Lauder Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 59.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Estée Lauder Companies to earn $2.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.9%.

Estée Lauder Companies Trading Down 0.5 %

EL opened at $74.69 on Wednesday. Estée Lauder Companies has a 1-year low of $62.29 and a 1-year high of $159.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.81 billion, a PE ratio of -38.30, a PEG ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $74.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $80.67.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.30. Estée Lauder Companies had a negative net margin of 4.61% and a positive return on equity of 16.82%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. Estée Lauder Companies’s revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on EL. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $81.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $81.00 to $77.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Friday, January 31st. B. Riley lowered their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Estée Lauder Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Estée Lauder Companies

In other news, Director Paul J. Fribourg purchased 43,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $66.35 per share, with a total value of $2,853,050.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 430,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,583,580. This trade represents a 11.09 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Akhil Shrivastava acquired 700 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $65.79 per share, with a total value of $46,053.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $156,645.99. This trade represents a 41.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 12.78% 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.