Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Has $5.45 Million Stake in LKQ Co. (NASDAQ:LKQ)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of LKQ Co. (NASDAQ:LKQ) by 29.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 148,186 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,017 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in LKQ were worth $5,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in LKQ by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,591,553 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $241,643,000 after buying an additional 48,813 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of LKQ by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,571,136 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $204,739,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171,481 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in LKQ by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,231,940 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $192,268,000 after acquiring an additional 1,053,001 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in LKQ in the fourth quarter worth about $165,548,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in LKQ during the 4th quarter worth about $119,395,000. 95.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on LKQ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of LKQ from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com cut LKQ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of LKQ in a research note on Monday, April 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.60.

LKQ Stock Performance

Shares of LKQ stock opened at $40.10 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a PE ratio of 15.31 and a beta of 0.98. LKQ Co. has a 12 month low of $35.56 and a 12 month high of $46.64.

LKQ (NASDAQ:LKQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The auto parts company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.79. LKQ had a return on equity of 14.93% and a net margin of 4.81%. The business had revenue of $3.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 EPS. LKQ’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that LKQ Co. will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

LKQ Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. LKQ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.78%.

Insider Activity

In other LKQ news, Director Dominick P. Zarcone sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.32, for a total transaction of $634,800.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 336,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,225,233.20. The trade was a 4.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Justin L. Jude acquired 2,708 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $36.99 per share, with a total value of $100,168.92. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 280,777 shares in the company, valued at $10,385,941.23. This represents a 0.97 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 45,000 shares of company stock worth $1,873,750 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

About LKQ

LKQ Corporation engages in the distribution of replacement parts, components, and systems used in the repair and maintenance of vehicles and specialty vehicle aftermarket products and accessories. It operates through four segments: Wholesale-North America, Europe, Specialty, and Self Service. The company distributes bumper covers, automotive body panels, and lights, as well as mechanical automotive parts and accessories; salvage products, including mechanical and collision parts comprising engines; transmissions; door assemblies; sheet metal products, such as trunk lids, fenders, and hoods; lights and bumper assemblies; scrap metal and other materials to metals recyclers; and brake pads, discs and sensors, clutches, steering and suspension products, filters, and oil and automotive fluids, as well as electrical products, including spark plugs and batteries.