Lear (NYSE:LEA) Downgraded to “Buy” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Lear (NYSE:LEA) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on LEA. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Lear from $113.00 to $108.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Lear in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Lear from $109.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $123.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lear in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $115.00.

Lear Price Performance

Shares of Lear stock opened at $104.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.07. Lear has a fifty-two week low of $73.85 and a fifty-two week high of $113.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $104.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.97. The company has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a PE ratio of 12.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.32.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The auto parts company reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.63 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 13.94%. The business’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.89 EPS. Lear has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Lear will post 12.89 EPS for the current year.

Lear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 3rd. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lear

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LEA. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Lear by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 938 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Lear by 25.5% in the 1st quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,086 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 831 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in Lear by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 8,159 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $720,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. increased its position in Lear by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. now owns 42,328 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $3,734,000 after acquiring an additional 4,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Lear by 23.2% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,165 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $5,131,000 after acquiring an additional 10,969 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

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.