Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.77

Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.77 per share by the auto parts company on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%.

Lear has increased its dividend payment by an average of 44.5% per year over the last three years. Lear has a payout ratio of 22.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lear to earn $13.84 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.3%.

Lear Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE:LEA traded up $2.81 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $96.37. 623,881 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 661,262. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $102.93 and its 200-day moving average is $113.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.46. Lear has a 12-month low of $92.14 and a 12-month high of $147.11.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The auto parts company reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.32. Lear had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business had revenue of $5.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Lear will post 12.19 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on LEA shares. Bank of America cut their target price on Lear from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $132.00 price objective on shares of Lear in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Lear in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Lear from $144.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Lear from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $140.25.

Lear Company 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.