Leggett & Platt (NYSE:LEG) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Leggett & Platt (NYSE:LEG) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Leggett & Platt from $20.00 to $14.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. TheStreet lowered shares of Leggett & Platt from a c rating to a d+ rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Leggett & Platt from $16.00 to $13.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Leggett & Platt from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $12.67.

Leggett & Platt Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of LEG opened at $11.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.84 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $12.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.52. Leggett & Platt has a 12-month low of $10.11 and a 12-month high of $31.14.

Leggett & Platt (NYSE:LEG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. Leggett & Platt had a positive return on equity of 11.31% and a negative net margin of 3.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Leggett & Platt will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Leggett & Platt Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. Leggett & Platt’s dividend payout ratio is presently -17.24%.

Insider Activity at Leggett & Platt

In other news, EVP Ryan Michael Kleiboeker bought 10,000 shares of Leggett & Platt stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.39 per share, with a total value of $133,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 41,535 shares in the company, valued at $556,153.65. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Ryan Michael Kleiboeker bought 10,000 shares of Leggett & Platt stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.39 per share, with a total value of $133,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 41,535 shares in the company, valued at $556,153.65. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karl G. Glassman bought 23,800 shares of Leggett & Platt stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.48 per share, for a total transaction of $273,224.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,151,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,223,708.68. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 65,635 shares of company stock valued at $773,447 over the last 90 days. 1.92% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Leggett & Platt

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LEG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Leggett & Platt during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,814,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Leggett & Platt by 68.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,934,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,636,000 after purchasing an additional 786,297 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in Leggett & Platt by 329.6% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 834,221 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,198,000 after purchasing an additional 640,015 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Leggett & Platt by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,373,959 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,127,000 after purchasing an additional 262,145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Leggett & Platt during the first quarter worth approximately $4,203,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.23% of the company’s stock.

Leggett & Platt Company Profile

Leggett & Platt, Incorporated designs, manufactures, and sells engineered components and products in the United States, Europe, China, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products. The company offers steel rods, drawn wires, specialty foam chemicals and additives, innersprings, specialty foam for use in bedding and furniture, private label finished mattresses, ready-to-assemble mattress foundations, static foundations, and adjustable beds, as well as machines for producing innersprings; industrial sewing and quilting machines; mattress-packaging; and glue-drying equipment for various industrial users of steel rod and wire, manufacturers of finished bedding, bedding brands and mattress retailers, E-commerce retailers, big box retailers, department stores, and home improvement centers.