Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Lear (NYSE:LEA) Price Target to $99.00

Lear (NYSE:LEA) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $106.00 to $99.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the auto parts company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on LEA. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Lear in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America dropped their target price on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays lowered Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $120.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Eight equities 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 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.67.

Lear Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of LEA opened at $95.55 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $99.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.35. Lear has a one year low of $92.14 and a one year high of $147.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.45.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Lear will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. Lear’s payout ratio is currently 32.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lear

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LEA. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Lear by 11,753.3% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,016,778 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $116,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008,200 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lear by 15.2% in 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 period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Lear by 36.9% in 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 period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in 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 worth $64,083,000 after acquiring an additional 300,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 238,964 shares during the period. 97.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.