Plato Investment Management Ltd Buys New Shares in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII)

Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,093 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,023,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LII. Rappaport Reiches Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Lennox International during the 4th quarter worth about $239,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Lennox International by 32.6% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,340 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,285,000 after buying an additional 1,803 shares during the last quarter. Tobam lifted its holdings in Lennox International by 1,640.0% during the 4th quarter. Tobam now owns 87 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Lennox International by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 67,094 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $30,026,000 after buying an additional 1,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Lennox International by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,346 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,945,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. 67.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LII has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Lennox International from $505.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Lennox International from $515.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Lennox International from $566.00 to $572.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Lennox International from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $675.00 target price on shares of Lennox International in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $543.62.

Lennox International Stock Performance

LII stock traded down $18.66 during trading on Thursday, hitting $564.84. The company had a trading volume of 274,136 shares, compared to its average volume of 291,670. The firm has a market cap of $20.13 billion, a PE ratio of 32.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. Lennox International Inc. has a 1-year low of $334.53 and a 1-year high of $594.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $536.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $490.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The construction company reported $6.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.55 by $0.28. Lennox International had a return on equity of 198.36% and a net margin of 12.85%. The company had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.15 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Lennox International Inc. will post 20.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennox International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a boost from Lennox International’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. Lennox International’s payout ratio is presently 26.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lennox International news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 1,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $573.79, for a total transaction of $1,000,689.76. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $944,458.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 10.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lennox International Company Profile

Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name.