Geode Capital Management LLC Buys 44,128 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 4.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,141,476 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 44,128 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.10% of Lear worth $124,621,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Lear during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Lear in the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Lear by 240.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 303 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Lear by 71.6% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LEA. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Lear from $106.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays cut shares of Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Lear in a report on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.67.

Lear Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of LEA stock opened at $94.75 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.45. Lear Co. has a 1 year low of $92.14 and a 1 year high of $147.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $99.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $109.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

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

Lear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.39%.

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.