Empirical Finance LLC Takes Position in Lear Corporation $LEA

Empirical Finance LLC purchased a new stake in Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEAFree Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,482 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $601,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Lear by 5,205.1% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,268 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 7,131 shares in the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in Lear in the 1st quarter worth approximately $267,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Lear during the 1st quarter worth $256,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Lear by 37.1% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 968 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Lear by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 4,296 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on LEA shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Lear from $137.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Lear from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $131.00 target price on Lear in a report on Monday, August 3rd. TD Cowen upgraded Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $165.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Lear from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.08.

Read Our Latest Report on Lear

Key Lear News

Here are the key news stories impacting Lear this week:

  • Neutral Sentiment: The Ryanair report involves CEO Michael O’Leary disputing a passenger’s account of an incident aboard a plane; it has no connection to Lear Corporation or the automotive-parts industry. Ryanair CEO Disputes Account of Passenger Sucked Out of Plane Window
  • Neutral Sentiment: Articles mentioning Kevin O’Leary discuss personal productivity and collectible-card investing, while the “King Lear” review concerns theater. These are name-related but unrelated to Lear Corporation’s operations or valuation.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The remaining items cover digital-marketing courses, computer-engineering skills, a Trezor phishing incident, data mining, water investing, college football and an unrelated company’s shareholder meeting. They do not appear likely to affect LEA.

Insider Activity at Lear

In related news, Director Conrad Mallett, Jr. sold 1,646 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.35, for a total value of $199,742.10. Following the sale, the director owned 37 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,489.95. This represents a 97.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.37, for a total value of $6,768,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 49,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,739,936.93. This represents a 50.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 1.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lear Stock Performance

NYSE LEA opened at $127.78 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $131.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $130.61. Lear Corporation has a 1 year low of $96.04 and a 1 year high of $150.33.

Lear (NYSE:LEAGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The auto parts company reported $4.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.98 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $6.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.15 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 14.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Lear Corporation will post 14.86 EPS for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. Lear’s payout ratio is 28.70%.

Lear Company Profile

(Free Report)

Lear Corporation is a global automotive technology company that designs and manufactures systems and components used in passenger vehicles. Its business is organized primarily around two areas: seating and E-Systems. Lear supplies complete vehicle seating systems, including seats, structures, mechanisms, foam, covers and related components, as well as electrical distribution systems and other technologies that help manage power, data and connectivity within vehicles.

The company’s E-Systems offerings include low- and high-voltage wiring systems, connection systems, battery and power-management solutions, electronic control modules, displays and software-enabled technologies.

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Lear (NYSE:LEA)

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