Lear (NYSE:LEA) Downgraded by Barclays to “Equal Weight”

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

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Lear from $114.00 to $106.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 21st. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Lear from $142.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.08.

Lear Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE LEA opened at $97.82 on Wednesday. Lear has a fifty-two week low of $97.26 and a fifty-two week high of $147.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.29, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $108.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.82.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 2.30%. The company had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.87 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Lear will post 12.27 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.39%.

Institutional Trading of Lear

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Lear in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lear during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lear by 70.5% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 266 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Lear by 240.4% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 303 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Lear by 71.6% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.