Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,687 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 155 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Lear were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lear during the 4th quarter valued at $79,611,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Lear by 970.4% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 540,850 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $76,373,000 after acquiring an additional 490,324 shares during the period. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its stake in Lear by 55.4% during the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,067,888 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $150,796,000 after acquiring an additional 380,771 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 196.7% in the first quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 319,156 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $46,239,000 after buying an additional 211,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,023,195 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $872,640,000 after buying an additional 109,746 shares during the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on LEA shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Lear from $136.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Lear from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $132.00 price target on shares of Lear in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $179.00 to $166.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lear has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $149.70.

Lear Stock Performance

LEA stock opened at $108.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $113.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.01. The company has a market capitalization of $6.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.78, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.45. Lear Co. has a 1-year low of $101.67 and a 1-year high of $147.11.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The auto parts company reported $3.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.34 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.02 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.30% and a return on equity of 14.75%. The firm’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lear Co. will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.59%.

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.