JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Lennox International (NYSE:LII) Price Target to $455.00

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) had its price target lowered by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $565.00 to $455.00 in a report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an underweight rating on the construction company’s stock.

LII has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $580.00 price objective (down previously from $630.00) on shares of Lennox International in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Mizuho lowered Lennox International from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $675.00 to $625.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on Lennox International from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $750.00 price target on shares of Lennox International in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Lennox International in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $595.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $606.15.

Lennox International Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of LII opened at $508.96 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.58, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.07. Lennox International has a 52 week low of $445.63 and a 52 week high of $682.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $585.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $612.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $5.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $1.48. Lennox International had a return on equity of 126.79% and a net margin of 15.11%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Lennox International will post 22.94 EPS for the current year.

Lennox International Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Lennox International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.20, for a total transaction of $124,974.80. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 10.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lennox International

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LII. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Lennox International by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 67,372 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $37,784,000 after buying an additional 4,047 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Lennox International by 69,429.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 356,688 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $200,041,000 after purchasing an additional 356,175 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in shares of Lennox International by 23.5% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 421 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $236,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Lennox International by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 46,361 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $28,248,000 after buying an additional 2,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lennox International in the 4th quarter valued at $288,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.07% of the company’s stock.

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.