Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 20.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,932 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 493 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Lear were worth $320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LEA. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lear by 11,753.3% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,016,778 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $116,126,000 after buying an additional 1,008,200 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Lear by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,187,890 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $820,929,000 after buying an additional 946,109 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Lear by 36.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,871,346 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $213,726,000 after buying an additional 504,091 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Lear by 115.4% during the 2nd 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, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lear by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,754,752 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $314,620,000 after buying an additional 238,964 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Lear Price Performance

NYSE:LEA opened at $96.72 on Monday. Lear Co. has a 12 month low of $95.63 and a 12 month high of $147.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $107.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $116.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $5.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.46.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share (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 business’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 12.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $132.00 price objective on shares of Lear in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America cut their price target on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Lear from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Lear from $136.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lear currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.08.

Lear Company Profile

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.