FORA Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 15,561 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,698,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LEA. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Lear by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $842,054,000 after acquiring an additional 526,763 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position 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 valued at $314,620,000 after purchasing an additional 238,964 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Lear by 36.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,871,346 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $213,726,000 after buying an additional 504,091 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its holdings in Lear by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,816,880 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $207,506,000 after buying an additional 17,820 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Lear by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,713,661 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $187,046,000 after acquiring an additional 206,822 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on LEA. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Lear from $142.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Lear in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Eight 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 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.25.

Lear Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of LEA opened at $97.25 on Thursday. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $92.14 and a 12 month high of $147.11. The stock has a market cap of $5.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $102.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $112.12.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 2.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.87 EPS. Lear’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Lear Co. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.17%. 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.