Rhumbline Advisers Has $14.50 Million Holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Rhumbline Advisers cut its stake in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 153,110 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 6,084 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Lear were worth $14,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LEA. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Lear by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $842,054,000 after acquiring an additional 526,763 shares during the last quarter. 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 valued at $137,975,000 after acquiring an additional 247,312 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Lear by 13.7% in 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 last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Lear by 7,452.3% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 173,855 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $16,129,000 after acquiring an additional 171,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARGA Investment Management LP increased its stake in shares of Lear by 25.7% in the 4th quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 595,615 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $56,405,000 after acquiring an additional 121,734 shares during the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Lear from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Lear from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Lear from $147.00 to $143.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Lear from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $127.00.

Lear Price Performance

Shares of LEA opened at $96.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.42. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $86.28 and a twelve month high of $147.11. The company has a 50 day moving average of $94.87 and a 200-day moving average of $101.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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 return on equity of 14.70% and a net margin of 2.17%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lear Co. will post 12.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Lear’s 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.