Morgan Stanley Cuts Lear (NYSE:LEA) Price Target to $125.00

Lear (NYSE:LEA) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the auto parts company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on LEA. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Lear from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $147.00 to $143.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lear currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.09.

Lear Stock Performance

LEA opened at $93.96 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.51, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $94.90 and a 200 day moving average of $100.57. Lear has a fifty-two week low of $86.28 and a fifty-two week high of $147.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $2.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.50 by $0.44. Lear had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 14.70%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Lear will post 12.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.45%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lear

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LEA. Schroder Investment Management Group purchased a new position in shares of Lear during the 4th quarter worth about $90,700,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Lear by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,714,653 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $842,054,000 after buying an additional 526,763 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Lear by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,212,579 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $209,531,000 after buying an additional 498,918 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Lear by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,491,895 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $614,782,000 after buying an additional 447,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Lear by 45.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,133,186 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $107,313,000 after buying an additional 356,760 shares in the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.