New England Research & Management Inc. Increases Stock Position in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII)

New England Research & Management Inc. lifted its stake in Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII - Free Report) by 261.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,180 shares of the construction company's stock after buying an additional 2,300 shares during the period. New England Research & Management Inc.'s holdings in Lennox International were worth $1,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LII. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Lennox International by 24.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 636 shares of the construction company's stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lennox International by 8.9% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 576 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. City Holding Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Lennox International during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lennox International in the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Lennox International by 6.4% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 67,372 shares of the construction company's stock worth $37,784,000 after buying an additional 4,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.07% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LII has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Lennox International from $702.00 to $696.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Lennox International from $625.00 to $570.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Oppenheimer raised Lennox International from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Lennox International from $580.00 to $582.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Lennox International from $585.00 to $450.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $583.71.

Lennox International Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of LII traded up $4.81 on Monday, reaching $542.90. The stock had a trading volume of 379,734 shares, compared to its average volume of 362,813. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.43. Lennox International Inc. has a 12-month low of $500.10 and a 12-month high of $682.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $561.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $593.09.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The construction company reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.25 by $0.12. Lennox International had a return on equity of 126.79% and a net margin of 15.11%. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.47 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Lennox International Inc. will post 22.94 EPS for the current year.

Lennox International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. This is a positive change from Lennox International's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. Lennox International's payout ratio is presently 23.17%.

Lennox International announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the construction company to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Chris Kosel sold 509 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $568.05, for a total value of $289,137.45. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,582 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $898,655.10. This represents a 24.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 9.73% of the company's stock.

About Lennox International

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.