Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Grows Position in LKQ Co. (NASDAQ:LKQ)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in shares of LKQ Co. (NASDAQ:LKQ) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 54,586 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in LKQ were worth $2,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LKQ. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in LKQ in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its stake in LKQ by 81.0% in the fourth quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 742 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in LKQ by 94.2% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,010 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA increased its stake in LKQ by 31.2% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,256 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in LKQ in the third quarter valued at approximately $57,000. 95.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on LKQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of LKQ from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of LKQ in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded LKQ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.60.

LKQ Price Performance

LKQ stock opened at $41.75 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93 and a beta of 1.29. LKQ Co. has a twelve month low of $35.56 and a twelve month high of $53.68. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

LKQ (NASDAQ:LKQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The auto parts company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.04. LKQ had a return on equity of 14.93% and a net margin of 4.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that LKQ Co. will post 3.57 EPS for the current year.

LKQ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. LKQ’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Dominick P. Zarcone sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.14, for a total transaction of $180,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 369,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,352,356.68. This trade represents a 1.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 20,000 shares of company stock valued at $781,500 over the last three months. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

LKQ Profile

LKQ Corporation engages in the distribution of replacement parts, components, and systems used in the repair and maintenance of vehicles and specialty vehicle aftermarket products and accessories. It operates through four segments: Wholesale-North America, Europe, Specialty, and Self Service. The company distributes bumper covers, automotive body panels, and lights, as well as mechanical automotive parts and accessories; salvage products, including mechanical and collision parts comprising engines; transmissions; door assemblies; sheet metal products, such as trunk lids, fenders, and hoods; lights and bumper assemblies; scrap metal and other materials to metals recyclers; and brake pads, discs and sensors, clutches, steering and suspension products, filters, and oil and automotive fluids, as well as electrical products, including spark plugs and batteries.