Lear (NYSE:LEA) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays

Barclays lowered shares of Lear (NYSE:LEA) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $120.00 target price on the auto parts company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $140.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group cut their target price on Lear from $136.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Bank of America cut their target price on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Evercore ISI cut their target price 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. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Lear from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Lear from $114.00 to $106.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.08.

Lear Stock Performance

Shares of LEA opened at $96.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $107.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $116.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 1.44. Lear has a 52 week low of $95.63 and a 52 week high of $147.11.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $5.58 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.87 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Lear will post 12.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lear

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Lear by 15.2% during the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,187,890 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $820,929,000 after acquiring an additional 946,109 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 109,746 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 9.5% in the second quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,754,752 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $314,620,000 after purchasing an additional 238,964 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 36.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,871,346 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $213,726,000 after purchasing an additional 504,091 shares during the period. Finally, Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 1.0% in the second quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,816,880 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $207,506,000 after purchasing an additional 17,820 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

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.