Two Sigma Investments LP Sells 1,798,864 Shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Two Sigma Investments LP lowered its position in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) by 80.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 436,457 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,798,864 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP’s holdings in Estée Lauder Companies were worth $32,726,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EL. Harrell Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $771,000 after purchasing an additional 3,524 shares during the last quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $352,000. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 91,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,838,000 after purchasing an additional 4,690 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 47.4% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 1,538,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,322,000 after purchasing an additional 30,971 shares during the last quarter. 55.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $72.00 to $61.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $76.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $85.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $100.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Estée Lauder Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.20.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

Shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock opened at $66.11 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.12. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.37 and a twelve month high of $133.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.81.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.36. The business had revenue of $2.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.51 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a positive return on equity of 16.82% and a negative net margin of 4.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -57.85%.

About Estée Lauder Companies

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.