Ossiam Purchases 14,573 Shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Ossiam boosted its stake in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL - Free Report) by 81.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,453 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 14,573 shares during the quarter. Ossiam's holdings in Estée Lauder Companies were worth $2,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $443,000. Capital International Inc. CA acquired a new position in Estée Lauder Companies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,715,000. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Estée Lauder Companies during the 4th quarter worth $554,509,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 579,430 shares of the company's stock worth $43,444,000 after buying an additional 75,499 shares during the period. Finally, Continental Grain Co. bought a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $29,077,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EL. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $85.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $72.00 to $61.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $75.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $77.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Estée Lauder Companies currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $81.57.

Estée Lauder Companies Trading Up 1.3 %

EL traded up $0.76 on Friday, hitting $59.41. 2,585,431 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,256,833. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.33 billion, a PE ratio of -30.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.10. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.37 and a 12 month high of $149.06.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.30. Estée Lauder Companies had a positive return on equity of 16.82% and a negative net margin of 4.61%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. Estée Lauder Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -71.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Akhil Shrivastava acquired 700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $65.79 per share, for a total transaction of $46,053.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,381 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $156,645.99. This trade represents a 41.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg acquired 43,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $66.35 per share, with a total value of $2,853,050.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 430,800 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $28,583,580. This trade represents a 11.09 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 12.78% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.