Prudential Financial Inc. Trims Stake in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL - Free Report) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 124,161 shares of the company's stock after selling 21,596 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.'s holdings in Estée Lauder Companies were worth $9,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Templeton & Phillips Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $920,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Estée Lauder Companies during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,537,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,014,303 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,025,532,000 after buying an additional 2,344,210 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter worth about $6,077,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 568.4% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 150,164 shares of the company's stock valued at $11,256,000 after acquiring an additional 127,699 shares during the period. 55.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on EL. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $76.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $76.00 to $70.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $86.00.

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Estée Lauder Companies Stock Up 0.9 %

EL stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Monday, hitting $66.01. 3,118,282 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,822,270. The firm's 50 day moving average is $72.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.09. The stock has a market cap of $23.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.08. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.29 and a 1 year high of $155.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Estée Lauder Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -71.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Paul J. Fribourg bought 43,000 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $66.35 per share, with a total value of $2,853,050.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 430,800 shares of the company's stock, valued at $28,583,580. The trade was a 11.09 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Akhil Shrivastava purchased 700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $65.79 per share, for a total transaction of $46,053.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 2,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $156,645.99. This represents a 41.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 12.78% of the company's stock.

About Estée Lauder Companies

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.