MetLife Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII) by 1.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,035 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 335 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Lennox International were worth $10,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lennox International in the second quarter worth $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Lennox International in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its stake in shares of Lennox International by 38.8% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 68 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank increased its position in shares of Lennox International by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 71 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Lennox International by 388.9% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 88 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 67.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lennox International

In other news, Director Todd J. Teske sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $675.52, for a total value of $337,760.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,911 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,344,038.72. This represents a 5.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Kosel sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $625.49, for a total value of $125,098.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $904,458.54. The trade was a 12.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,606 shares of company stock worth $1,022,863 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 10.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on LII shares. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Lennox International from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Lennox International from $604.00 to $619.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays lifted their target price on Lennox International from $575.00 to $624.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Lennox International from $570.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Northcoast Research assumed coverage on Lennox International in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “sell” rating and a $475.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lennox International currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $575.54.

Lennox International Stock Performance

LII opened at $660.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.34, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $614.80 and a 200 day moving average of $569.42. Lennox International Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $397.34 and a fifty-two week high of $682.50.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The construction company reported $6.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.95 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. Lennox International had a return on equity of 148.52% and a net margin of 14.63%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.37 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Lennox International Inc. will post 21.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennox International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Lennox International’s payout ratio is currently 21.84%.

Lennox International 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.