Covestor Ltd Purchases 457 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,775 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 457 shares during the quarter. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Lear were worth $194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LEA. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Lear during the 1st quarter valued at $1,984,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Lear by 1.9% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 307,383 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $44,534,000 after acquiring an additional 5,584 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its position in Lear by 35.2% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 54,995 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $7,953,000 after purchasing an additional 14,305 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Lear during the 2nd quarter valued at about $530,000. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. increased its position in shares of Lear by 73.6% during the 1st quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 11,754 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,703,000 after purchasing an additional 4,984 shares during the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lowered shares of Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $140.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Lear from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $132.00 price target on shares of Lear in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Lear from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 15th. 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, Lear presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.08.

Lear Price Performance

LEA stock opened at $96.31 on Monday. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $105.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $114.92. Lear Co. has a one year low of $94.29 and a one year high of $147.11. The company has a market capitalization of $5.23 billion, a PE ratio of 10.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.46.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.87 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Lear Co. will post 12.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.39%.

About Lear

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.