Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Shares in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 14,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,048,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Estée Lauder Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $858,070,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 68.5% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,720,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $537,850,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512,982 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 35.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,311,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $767,730,000 after acquiring an additional 1,387,271 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Estée Lauder Companies by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,009,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,739,070,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 132.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,735,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $250,901,000 after buying an additional 988,829 shares during the last quarter. 55.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $146.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Estée Lauder Companies in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $145.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.00.

Estée Lauder Companies Stock Up 0.8 %

Estée Lauder Companies stock opened at $138.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $49.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.21, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $146.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.03. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a 52 week low of $102.22 and a 52 week high of $260.46.

Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $4.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.19 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 3.08% and a return on equity of 9.78%. The business’s revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. On average, analysts expect that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 2.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Estée Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 203.08%.

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, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.