Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its position in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 98,060 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 6,549 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Lear were worth $9,286,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lear by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,216 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $873,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the period. RWC Asset Management LLP lifted its holdings in Lear by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 410,908 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $38,913,000 after acquiring an additional 77,691 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lear during the 4th quarter worth $3,871,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,049 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $14,742,000 after purchasing an additional 12,094 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Lear by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 39,465 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $3,759,000 after purchasing an additional 5,711 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Lear

In other Lear news, Director Rod Lache purchased 2,178 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $91.80 per share, for a total transaction of $199,940.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 2,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $199,940.40. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays downgraded shares of Lear from an “equal weight” rating to a “negative” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Lear from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen cut shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lear currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.27.

Lear Stock Performance

NYSE LEA opened at $79.48 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 8.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.34. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $90.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.46. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $73.85 and a twelve month high of $138.69.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.50 by $0.44. Lear had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 14.70%. On average, research analysts predict that Lear Co. will post 12.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th were given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.45%.

About Lear

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.