Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) Price Target Raised to $80.00

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) had its price target lifted by UBS Group from $74.00 to $80.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on EL. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com downgraded Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. B. Riley lowered their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. CICC Research assumed coverage on Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Friday, December 27th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $82.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HSBC downgraded Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.55.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EL opened at $77.86 on Thursday. Estée Lauder Companies has a twelve month low of $62.29 and a twelve month high of $159.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44. The company has a market capitalization of $27.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.02 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.64.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.05. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 17.31% and a net margin of 1.31%. The business had revenue of $3.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 250.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Paul J. Fribourg bought 77,500 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $64.01 per share, with a total value of $4,960,775.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 234,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,010,345. This trade represents a 49.36 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Fabrizio Freda sold 10,969 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total value of $743,259.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 295,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,045,982.88. This represents a 3.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 9.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,575,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,054,314,000 after buying an additional 913,470 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 79.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,723,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $570,600,000 after buying an additional 2,533,006 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,679,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $464,587,000 after buying an additional 70,307 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 36.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,041,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $402,938,000 after buying an additional 1,078,926 shares during the period. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 44.4% during the second quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 3,466,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $368,788,000 after buying an additional 1,066,320 shares during the period. 55.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Estée Lauder Companies Company Profile

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.