Morgan Stanley Begins Coverage on Lennox International (NYSE:LII)

Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Lennox International (NYSE:LII) in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an underweight rating and a $595.00 target price on the construction company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Lennox International from $570.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Lennox International from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Lennox International from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Lennox International from $648.00 to $656.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Lennox International from $624.00 to $674.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $590.50.

Lennox International Stock Performance

NYSE LII opened at $625.84 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $634.50 and a 200-day moving average of $596.67. Lennox International has a 52-week low of $412.09 and a 52-week high of $682.50.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The construction company reported $6.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.95 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. Lennox International had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 148.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.37 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Lennox International will post 21.1 EPS for the current year.

Lennox International Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Lennox International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.84%.

Insider Activity at Lennox International

In other news, EVP John D. Torres sold 581 shares of Lennox International stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $620.98, for a total transaction of $360,789.38. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,898,734.64. This trade represents a 11.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Kosel sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $625.49, for a total value of $125,098.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $904,458.54. This represents a 12.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,106 shares of company stock valued at $1,353,233. 10.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lennox International

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LII. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Lennox International during the third quarter worth $27,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Lennox International during the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. Huntington National Bank grew its position in shares of Lennox International by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 71 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Lennox International by 388.9% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 88 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Lennox International in the third quarter valued at about $77,000. 67.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lennox International Company Profile

Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name.