Barclays Cuts Lear (NYSE:LEA) Price Target to $115.00

Lear (NYSE:LEA) had its price target decreased by Barclays from $120.00 to $115.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the auto parts company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on LEA. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lear currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.73.

Lear Price Performance

Shares of LEA opened at $96.25 on Wednesday. Lear has a 1 year low of $90.03 and a 1 year high of $147.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $5.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $95.94 and a 200-day moving average of $104.71.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 2.33%. The company had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Lear will post 12.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is 32.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LEA. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Lear by 70.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 266 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of Lear by 301.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 56,387 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $6,440,000 after buying an additional 42,349 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Lear during the second quarter valued at approximately $886,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Lear by 115.4% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 561,100 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $64,083,000 after buying an additional 300,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in shares of Lear by 20.4% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 57,778 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $6,599,000 after buying an additional 9,786 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

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.