Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Stock Price Up 6% After Analyst Upgrade

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) shares traded up 6% on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $74.00 to $80.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Estée Lauder Companies traded as high as $79.00 and last traded at $79.00. 1,766,343 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 2,891,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $74.52.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $131.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $95.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 77,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.01 per share, with a total value of $4,960,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 234,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,010,345. This trade represents a 49.36 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Fabrizio Freda sold 10,969 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total transaction of $743,259.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 295,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,045,982.88. This trade represents a 3.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 1,324.7% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 17,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,887,000 after buying an additional 16,493 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 358,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,135,000 after buying an additional 15,333 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 584,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,202,000 after buying an additional 41,776 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Estée Lauder Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,569,000. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 21,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,313,000 after buying an additional 2,493 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

Estée Lauder Companies Trading Up 4.7 %

The business’s fifty day moving average is $73.24 and its 200-day moving average is $85.89. The firm has a market cap of $28.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.02 and a beta of 1.02. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 1.31% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. Analysts predict that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 250.00%.

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.