Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Shares Purchased by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 8.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 115,324 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,290 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Lear were worth $10,921,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Lear during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Lear by 70.5% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 266 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Lear during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Lear by 240.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 303 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Lear by 71.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LEA has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $106.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lear has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.18.

Lear Price Performance

Lear stock opened at $94.22 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.31. The company has a market capitalization of $5.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.43. Lear Co. has a 1 year low of $90.03 and a 1 year high of $147.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.33.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business’s revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.87 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.