Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,830,000 shares, an increase of 15.0% from the March 15th total of 2,460,000 shares. Approximately 5.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 531,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.3 days.

Insider Transactions at Lear

In other news, CFO Jason M. Cardew sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.81, for a total value of $387,227.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,465,019.86. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Jason M. Cardew sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.81, for a total value of $387,227.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,465,019.86. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 10,652 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.86, for a total transaction of $1,415,224.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,810,483.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lear

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Lear by 2.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,792,397 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,226,452,000 after purchasing an additional 227,230 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Lear by 47.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 3,064,807 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $437,259,000 after acquiring an additional 993,216 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Lear by 0.5% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,463,244 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $351,234,000 after acquiring an additional 12,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lear by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,179,175 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $307,721,000 after acquiring an additional 153,282 shares in the last quarter. 97.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on LEA shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Lear from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Lear from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Lear from $130.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Benchmark increased their target price on shares of Lear from $188.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $162.44.

Lear Price Performance

Shares of Lear stock traded down $0.41 on Tuesday, reaching $131.93. The stock had a trading volume of 437,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 531,147. Lear has a 1 year low of $117.79 and a 1 year high of $157.90. The company has a market cap of $7.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $139.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.87.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.12 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $5.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.69 billion. Lear had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 2.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.81 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Lear will post 14.55 EPS for the current year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Lear’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.82%.

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.