The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the twenty-three analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $86.00.

EL has been the topic of several recent research reports. CICC Research assumed coverage on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Friday, December 27th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $82.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $81.00 to $77.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Estée Lauder Companies from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $76.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $71.00 to $64.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Akhil Shrivastava purchased 700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $65.79 per share, with a total value of $46,053.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,381 shares in the company, valued at $156,645.99. This trade represents a 41.64 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Paul J. Fribourg purchased 43,000 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $66.35 per share, with a total value of $2,853,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 430,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,583,580. This trade represents a 11.09 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 12.78% of the company's stock.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EL. FMR LLC raised its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 163.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,382,579 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,078,406,000 after purchasing an additional 8,930,011 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new stake in Estée Lauder Companies during the 4th quarter worth $554,509,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $251,304,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 11,026.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,343,607 shares of the company's stock valued at $250,704,000 after purchasing an additional 3,313,557 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 148.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,481,248 shares of the company's stock worth $410,984,000 after buying an additional 3,278,632 shares during the period. 55.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EL traded up $6.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $56.13. The company had a trading volume of 9,084,243 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,978,386. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.25. Estée Lauder Companies has a fifty-two week low of $48.37 and a fifty-two week high of $149.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75.

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. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a negative net margin of 4.61% and a positive return on equity of 16.82%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Estée Lauder Companies will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Estée Lauder Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Estée Lauder Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -71.79%.

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.