Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Takes Position in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 460 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 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 worth $820,929,000 after buying an additional 946,109 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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. boosted its stake in shares of Lear by 115.4% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Lear by 9.5% during the second quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,754,752 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $314,620,000 after acquiring an additional 238,964 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on LEA. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $132.00 price objective on shares of Lear in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Lear from $142.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Lear from $106.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $139.67.

Lear Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of LEA stock opened at $94.78 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.97, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.45. 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 50-day moving average price of $98.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.69. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $91.70 and a twelve month high of $147.11.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share 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 net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The company’s revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.87 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Lear Co. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.39%.

Lear 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.