1620 Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA)

1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,245 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $118,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. RWC Asset Management LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 23.3% in the 4th quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 410,908 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $38,913,000 after buying an additional 77,691 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 9,216 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $873,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Lear by 9.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,049 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $14,742,000 after purchasing an additional 12,094 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Lear by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 39,465 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $3,759,000 after purchasing an additional 5,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Lear by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 676,977 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $64,110,000 after purchasing an additional 99,072 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on LEA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $147.00 to $143.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Lear from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Lear from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of Lear from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, March 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rod Lache bought 2,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $91.80 per share, with a total value of $199,940.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 2,178 shares in the company, valued at $199,940.40. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Lear Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE LEA opened at $94.23 on Friday. Lear Co. has a one year low of $86.28 and a one year high of $147.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.54, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.44.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $2.94 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, analysts expect that Lear Co. will post 12.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Lear’s payout ratio is 34.45%.

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.