Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 6,055 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 39.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,221 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,055 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Lear were worth $2,316,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lear by 15.2% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,187,890 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $820,929,000 after purchasing an additional 946,109 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Lear by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,754,752 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $314,620,000 after buying an additional 238,964 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Lear by 36.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,871,346 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $213,726,000 after acquiring an additional 504,091 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 1.0% during the second quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,816,880 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $207,506,000 after purchasing an additional 17,820 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Lear by 2.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,506,839 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $172,096,000 after acquiring an additional 32,275 shares during the period. 97.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on LEA. Bank of America cut their target price on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays downgraded Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $132.00 target price on shares of Lear in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lear has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.25.

Lear Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Lear stock opened at $97.89 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $112.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.29, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.46. Lear Co. has a 12-month low of $92.14 and a 12-month high of $147.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.03 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. Lear’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. Analysts predict that Lear Co. will post 12.01 EPS for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.39%.

Lear Company 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.