Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Sells 409 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,042 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 409 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Lear were worth $1,046,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. RWC Asset Management LLP boosted its position in shares of Lear by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 410,908 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $38,913,000 after acquiring an additional 77,691 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Lear by 9.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,049 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $14,742,000 after purchasing an additional 12,094 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Lear by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 39,465 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $3,759,000 after purchasing an additional 5,711 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Lear during the third quarter worth about $1,946,000. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in Lear by 7.3% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 144,282 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $15,748,000 after purchasing an additional 9,774 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LEA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Lear from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Lear from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $127.00.

Lear Stock Performance

Lear stock opened at $93.97 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $95.10 and a 200-day moving average of $100.98. Lear Co. has a 1 year low of $86.28 and a 1 year high of $147.11. 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 company has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.42.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 research analysts predict that Lear Co. will post 12.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.45%.

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.