Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Holdings Decreased by Grimes & Company Inc.

Grimes & Company Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 22.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 46,898 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 13,416 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in Lear were worth $4,441,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lear by 7.3% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $842,054,000 after buying an additional 526,763 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lear by 24.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,264,090 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $137,975,000 after purchasing an additional 247,312 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Lear by 13.7% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,713,661 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $187,046,000 after purchasing an additional 206,822 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Lear by 2,630.4% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 161,422 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $18,436,000 after acquiring an additional 155,510 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Lear by 40.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 223,958 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $25,430,000 after acquiring an additional 63,967 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on LEA. Barclays dropped their target price on Lear from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen cut their target price on Lear from $142.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.73.

Lear Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:LEA opened at $96.25 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $95.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.71. Lear Co. has a 12-month low of $90.03 and a 12-month high of $147.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $5.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.43.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. Lear had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 2.33%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.87 EPS. Analysts predict that Lear Co. 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. Lear’s payout ratio is 32.39%.

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.