Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Stock Price Down 3.4% – Time to Sell?

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)’s stock price traded down 3.4% on Friday . The company traded as low as $71.44 and last traded at $71.50. 775,717 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the average session volume of 1,518,579 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on EL shares. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $113.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $131.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $100.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Estée Lauder Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.82.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 128.86, a P/E/G ratio of 5.33 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $88.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.05. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 1.31%. The firm had revenue of $3.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Estée Lauder Companies’s payout ratio is currently 250.00%.

Insider Activity at Estée Lauder Companies

In other news, CEO Fabrizio Freda sold 10,969 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total value of $743,259.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 295,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,045,982.88. This represents a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg bought 75,500 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $64.93 per share, for a total transaction of $4,902,215.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 310,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,128,300. This represents a 32.20 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EL. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the fourth quarter worth $8,585,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 57.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,000 after buying an additional 1,042 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Estée Lauder Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,002,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the third quarter valued at about $1,621,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 47.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 141,804 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,392,000 after acquiring an additional 45,687 shares during the last quarter. 55.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Estée Lauder Companies

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.