The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) Plans $0.35 Quarterly Dividend

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.35 per share on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Estée Lauder Companies has raised its dividend by an average of 2.1% annually over the last three years. Estée Lauder Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 59.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Estée Lauder Companies to earn $2.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.9%.

Estée Lauder Companies Stock Down 0.5 %

EL stock opened at $74.69 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $26.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.30, a P/E/G ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.03. Estée Lauder Companies has a twelve month low of $62.29 and a twelve month high of $159.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $74.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $80.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a negative net margin of 4.61% and a positive return on equity of 16.82%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on EL. Citigroup lowered shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $85.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. CICC Research started coverage on Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Friday, December 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $82.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $81.00 to $77.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.00.

Insider Activity at Estée Lauder Companies

In related news, CFO Akhil Shrivastava purchased 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $65.79 per share, with a total value of $46,053.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,381 shares in the company, valued at $156,645.99. This trade represents a 41.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 43,000 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $66.35 per share, for a total transaction of $2,853,050.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 430,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,583,580. This represents a 11.09 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Estée Lauder Companies Company Profile

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.