Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Lennox International (NYSE:LII)

Stephens restated their overweight rating on shares of Lennox International (NYSE:LII) in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $675.00 price objective on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. TD Cowen increased their target price on Lennox International from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. UBS Group increased their target price on Lennox International from $450.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Lennox International from $505.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Lennox International from $566.00 to $572.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut Lennox International from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and increased their target price for the stock from $550.00 to $570.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lennox International has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $543.62.

Lennox International Price Performance

LII opened at $572.80 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $530.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $487.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95. The company has a market cap of $20.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.07. Lennox International has a 12-month low of $334.53 and a 12-month high of $583.42.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The construction company reported $6.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.55 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Lennox International had a return on equity of 198.36% and a net margin of 12.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $6.15 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Lennox International will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennox International Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were given a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. This is a boost from Lennox International’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Lennox International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.65%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LII. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Lennox International in the first quarter worth about $15,416,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Lennox International by 279.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 25,754 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $12,588,000 after purchasing an additional 18,972 shares during the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in Lennox International by 165.0% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 21,200 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $10,362,000 after purchasing an additional 13,200 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lennox International in the fourth quarter worth about $5,795,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Lennox International by 33.6% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 44,049 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $19,711,000 after buying an additional 11,077 shares during the period. 67.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.