Flossbach Von Storch AG Sells 27,342 Shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Flossbach Von Storch AG lowered its stake in shares of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) by 13.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 173,622 shares of the company’s stock after selling 27,342 shares during the quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG’s holdings in Estée Lauder Companies were worth $25,392,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EL. Raymond James raised their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Estée Lauder Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Estée Lauder Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $168.00.

Estée Lauder Companies Trading Up 0.8 %

EL traded up $1.14 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $138.07. 2,200,938 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,664,355. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 106.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.07. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a 1-year low of $102.22 and a 1-year high of $260.46. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $146.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $138.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $4.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.19 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 9.78% and a net margin of 3.08%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 2.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Estée Lauder Companies Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 203.08%.

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