Greenhaven Associates Inc. Acquires 22,601 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,842,247 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 22,601 shares during the period. Lear accounts for about 2.6% of Greenhaven Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Greenhaven Associates Inc.’s holdings in Lear were worth $174,461,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lear by 22.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 75,147 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $8,583,000 after purchasing an additional 13,909 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 70.5% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 266 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in Lear in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,937,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Lear by 301.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 56,387 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $6,440,000 after acquiring an additional 42,349 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Lear during the second quarter worth approximately $886,000. 97.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LEA has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Lear from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays downgraded shares of Lear from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $140.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.18.

Lear Stock Performance

LEA stock opened at $96.53 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a PE ratio of 10.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $96.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.98. Lear Co. has a 1-year low of $90.03 and a 1-year high of $147.11.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. Lear had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 2.33%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. Lear’s payout ratio is currently 32.39%.

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.