Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

Several other analysts also recently commented on EL. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target 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. Bank of America downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $140.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $130.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.64.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

EL stock opened at $97.12 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $34.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.56, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $92.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.84. Estée Lauder Companies has a 12-month low of $82.39 and a 12-month high of $159.75.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 16.91% and a net margin of 2.50%. The company had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.07 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Estée Lauder Companies will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Estée Lauder Companies

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Estée Lauder Companies

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 3,065.6% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,983,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,000,000 after buying an additional 1,920,439 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $291,171,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,686,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,188,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250,555 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $368,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066,320 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 3,477.8% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 566,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,804,000 after purchasing an additional 550,355 shares during the last quarter. 55.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.