Clark Estates Inc. NY Buys Shares of 31,700 Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Clark Estates Inc. NY purchased a new stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 31,700 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,002,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in Lear by 7.3% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $842,054,000 after buying an additional 526,763 shares during the period. Greenhaven Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lear by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,842,247 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $174,461,000 after acquiring an additional 22,601 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Lear by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,713,661 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $187,046,000 after acquiring an additional 206,822 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lear by 24.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,264,090 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $137,975,000 after purchasing an additional 247,312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Lear by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,141,476 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $124,621,000 after purchasing an additional 44,128 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on LEA. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Lear from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Lear from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Lear from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Lear currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $126.09.

Lear Trading Down 2.2 %

Lear stock opened at $89.46 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $94.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.61. Lear Co. has a 1 year low of $86.28 and a 1 year high of $147.11. The stock has a market cap of $4.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.01, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.42.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.50 by $0.44. Lear had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 14.70%. On average, equities analysts predict that Lear Co. will post 12.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.45%.

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.