Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Receives “Buy” Rating from DA Davidson

DA Davidson reissued their buy rating on shares of Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $130.00 price target on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also commented on EL. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $115.00 to $104.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Raymond James cut shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a strong-buy rating to a market perform rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $136.00 to $117.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $131.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $120.27.

Estée Lauder Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:EL opened at $100.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $92.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $116.74. The stock has a market cap of $36.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.62, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.00. Estée Lauder Companies has a 1-year low of $82.39 and a 1-year high of $159.75.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.80 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 2.50% and a return on equity of 16.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.07 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Estée Lauder Companies will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Estée Lauder Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. Estée Lauder Companies’s payout ratio is 148.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total transaction of $315,963.41. Following the transaction, the director now owns 49,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,578,114. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lynn Forester sold 3,890 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.61, for a total transaction of $364,142.90. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,423,714.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total transaction of $315,963.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 49,800 shares in the company, valued at $4,578,114. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EL. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 3,065.6% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,983,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,000,000 after buying an additional 1,920,439 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new position in Estée Lauder Companies in the 1st quarter valued at $291,171,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,686,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,188,832,000 after buying an additional 1,250,555 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion grew its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 1,908.0% in the 4th quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 1,195,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,895,000 after buying an additional 1,136,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 3,466,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $368,788,000 after buying an additional 1,066,320 shares during the last quarter. 55.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.