Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Shares Purchased by Greenhaven Associates Inc.

Greenhaven Associates Inc. raised its position in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,842,247 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 22,601 shares during the period. Lear accounts for about 2.6% of Greenhaven Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Greenhaven Associates Inc. owned 3.39% of Lear worth $174,461,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Lear by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $842,054,000 after buying an additional 526,763 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Lear by 13.7% during the third 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. boosted its holdings in Lear by 24.3% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,264,090 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $137,975,000 after acquiring an additional 247,312 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Lear by 4.0% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Lear by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 715,788 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $78,128,000 after purchasing an additional 46,303 shares during the period. 97.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on LEA shares. Barclays lowered shares of Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $120.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.18.

Lear Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE:LEA opened at $96.53 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.43. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $90.03 and a twelve month high of $147.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $96.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The firm had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.87 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 12.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. Lear’s payout ratio is presently 32.39%.

Lear 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.