Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Position Lessened by Quadrature Capital Ltd

Quadrature Capital Ltd decreased its stake in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 59.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,530 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 21,287 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd’s holdings in Lear were worth $2,105,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LEA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lear by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,023,195 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $872,640,000 after acquiring an additional 109,746 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lear by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,179,175 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $307,721,000 after purchasing an additional 153,282 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $150,796,000 after purchasing an additional 380,771 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in Lear by 66.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 981,669 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $138,595,000 after acquiring an additional 391,949 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Lear during the fourth quarter valued at about $79,611,000. Institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Lear

In other Lear news, Director Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. sold 1,278 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $159,174.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. sold 1,278 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $159,174.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Greg C. Smith sold 2,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.86, for a total transaction of $296,273.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LEA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Lear from $132.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Lear from $205.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Lear from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. UBS Group cut their price target on Lear from $136.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Lear from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $157.70.

Lear Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE:LEA traded up $0.65 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $121.41. The company had a trading volume of 696,386 shares, compared to its average volume of 683,158. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $6.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.10. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $112.26 and a twelve month high of $157.90.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The auto parts company reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.34 by $0.26. Lear had a net margin of 2.30% and a return on equity of 14.75%. The company had revenue of $6.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.02 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 13.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 6th. 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.