Lear (NYSE:LEA) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Lear (NYSE:LEA) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. BNP Paribas Exane cut Lear from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. TD Cowen raised Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $165.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Lear from $153.00 to $159.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered Lear from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Lear from $138.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.08.

Lear Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:LEA opened at $131.06 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.26. Lear has a 52 week low of $96.04 and a 52 week high of $150.33. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $131.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $130.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.31.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The auto parts company reported $4.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.98 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $6.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.15 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.35% and a return on equity of 14.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.06 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Lear will post 14.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lear news, Director Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. sold 1,646 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.35, for a total transaction of $199,742.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 37 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,489.95. This represents a 97.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Raymond Scott sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.37, for a total value of $6,768,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 49,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,739,936.93. This trade represents a 50.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lear

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in Lear by 14.3% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 624 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 36.5% in the 1st quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 303 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,260 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Lear by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 676 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waterfront Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lear by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 17,404 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $2,107,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Lear

Here are the key news stories impacting Lear this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: The news feed contains no announcements concerning Lear Corporation’s earnings, vehicle-production outlook, contracts, restructuring, acquisitions, or analyst recommendations. The recent articles about Meta’s AI financing, education legislation, and unrelated personal-finance and entertainment topics are not directly relevant to LEA.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several headlines use “Lear” in references to Norman Lear or Shakespeare’s King Lear; these are unrelated to the automotive supplier and should not be interpreted as business news for Lear Corporation.

Lear Company Profile

Lear Corporation is a global automotive technology company that designs and manufactures systems and components used in passenger vehicles. Its business is organized primarily around two areas: seating and E-Systems. Lear supplies complete vehicle seating systems, including seats, structures, mechanisms, foam, covers and related components, as well as electrical distribution systems and other technologies that help manage power, data and connectivity within vehicles.

The company’s E-Systems offerings include low- and high-voltage wiring systems, connection systems, battery and power-management solutions, electronic control modules, displays and software-enabled technologies.