Nicholas Company Inc. Sells 20,359 Shares of Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII)

Nicholas Company Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) by 67.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,861 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 20,359 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in Lennox International were worth $6,008,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd raised its position in Lennox International by 469.6% in the fourth quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 21,053 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $12,895,000 after purchasing an additional 17,357 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Lennox International by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 571,095 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $345,645,000 after purchasing an additional 12,183 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in Lennox International by 1,065.7% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,670 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,635,000 after purchasing an additional 7,012 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Lennox International by 26.9% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,261 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $14,056,000 after purchasing an additional 4,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP raised its position in Lennox International by 386.0% in the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 5,540 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,376,000 after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the last quarter. 67.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on LII. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $750.00 target price on shares of Lennox International in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays raised Lennox International from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $665.00 to $702.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut Lennox International from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $675.00 to $625.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on Lennox International from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Lennox International from $536.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lennox International presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $614.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 194 shares of Lennox International stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.20, for a total transaction of $124,974.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $825,864.40. This trade represents a 13.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 10.40% of the company’s stock.

Lennox International Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NYSE:LII opened at $576.23 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $613.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $614.87. The firm has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.43. Lennox International Inc. has a 52-week low of $445.63 and a 52-week high of $682.50.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $5.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.12 by $1.48. Lennox International had a return on equity of 126.79% and a net margin of 15.11%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lennox International Inc. will post 22.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Lennox International

Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name.