Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) Short Interest Update

Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, a drop of 19.5% from the November 30th total of 1,330,000 shares. Approximately 3.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 371,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Lennox International Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:LII traded down $4.69 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $609.30. The company had a trading volume of 191,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 300,296. Lennox International has a 1 year low of $412.09 and a 1 year high of $682.50. The company has a market cap of $21.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day moving average of $633.99 and a 200 day moving average of $593.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The construction company reported $6.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.95 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. Lennox International had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 148.52%. Lennox International’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.37 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Lennox International will post 21.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennox International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lennox International’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.84%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on LII. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Lennox International from $570.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Lennox International from $624.00 to $674.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Lennox International from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Northcoast Research initiated coverage on Lennox International in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “sell” rating and a $475.00 price objective for the company. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Lennox International from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $579.38.

Insider Transactions at Lennox International

In related news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 200 shares of Lennox International stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $625.49, for a total value of $125,098.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,446 shares in the company, valued at $904,458.54. The trade was a 12.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sherry Buck sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $660.74, for a total value of $330,370.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,118,632.82. The trade was a 22.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,106 shares of company stock valued at $1,353,233 in the last 90 days. 10.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lennox International in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,115,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Lennox International by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 571,095 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $345,645,000 after buying an additional 12,183 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in Lennox International by 1,065.7% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,670 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $4,635,000 after buying an additional 7,012 shares during the period. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its position in shares of Lennox International by 7.3% during the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 83,311 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $44,570,000 after acquiring an additional 5,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Lennox International by 26.9% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,261 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $14,056,000 after acquiring an additional 4,927 shares during the period. 67.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Lennox International

Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name.