Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Sells 184 Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC decreased its stake in shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) by 9.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,692 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 184 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Lear were worth $245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Lear by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,912,006 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $793,391,000 after acquiring an additional 45,567 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Lear by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,179,175 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $307,721,000 after purchasing an additional 153,282 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Lear by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,237,016 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $174,382,000 after purchasing an additional 149,958 shares during the period. Lyrical Asset Management LP grew its holdings in Lear by 55.4% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,067,888 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $150,796,000 after purchasing an additional 380,771 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in Lear by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 981,669 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $138,595,000 after purchasing an additional 391,949 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LEA. StockNews.com cut shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Lear from $177.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Lear from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Lear from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Lear from $175.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $160.00.

Lear Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Lear stock opened at $113.70 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $125.50 and its 200 day moving average is $133.28. Lear Co. has a twelve month low of $112.55 and a twelve month high of $157.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The auto parts company reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.14. Lear had a net margin of 2.28% and a return on equity of 14.47%. The business had revenue of $5.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Lear Co. will post 14.21 EPS for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.59%.

Insider Transactions at Lear

In other news, Director Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. sold 1,278 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $159,174.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Lear news, Director Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. sold 1,278 shares of Lear stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $159,174.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Greg C. Smith sold 2,392 shares of Lear stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.86, for a total transaction of $296,273.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Lear Profile

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.