Capital International Sarl Purchases New Position in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Capital International Sarl acquired a new position in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 9.5% in the 4th 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. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Estée Lauder Companies by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,382,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,078,406,000 after acquiring an additional 8,930,011 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 7,858,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,205,000 after acquiring an additional 2,458,379 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 148.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,481,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $410,984,000 after acquiring an additional 3,278,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 23.6% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,996,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $374,630,000 after purchasing an additional 954,493 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EL. UBS Group cut 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 note on Thursday. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $77.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $76.00 target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. CICC Research assumed coverage on Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Friday, December 27th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $82.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a report on Friday, January 31st. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Estée Lauder Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $81.57.

Estée Lauder Companies Price Performance

NYSE:EL opened at $54.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.88, a P/E/G ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $65.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.18. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a one year low of $48.37 and a one year high of $149.91. 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) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.98 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a negative net margin of 4.61% and a positive return on equity of 16.82%. Estée Lauder Companies’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. Equities 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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Estée Lauder Companies’s payout ratio is presently -71.79%.

Insider Activity

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

Estée Lauder Companies 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.