Lennox International, Inc. (NYSE:LII) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Lennox International, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from analysts, with four sell recommendations, five hold, and four buy ratings.
• The company's stock has a 12-month target price averaging $635.33, reflecting varying perspectives from different brokerages.
• Lennox International recently increased its quarterly dividend from $1.15 to $1.30, indicating a positive return for shareholders.

Shares of Lennox International, Inc. (NYSE:LII - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the thirteen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $635.3333.

Several brokerages have recently commented on LII. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Lennox International from $455.00 to $549.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Lennox International from $585.00 to $450.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Lennox International from $619.00 to $691.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Lennox International from $600.00 to $668.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Lennox International from $550.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lennox International

In other news, EVP Daniel M. Sessa sold 2,782 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $670.04, for a total value of $1,864,051.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 31,574 shares in the company, valued at $21,155,842.96. This represents a 8.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 9.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lennox International

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Lennox International by 8.9% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 576 shares of the construction company's stock worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Lennox International by 227.4% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 76,149 shares of the construction company's stock worth $46,398,000 after purchasing an additional 52,888 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Lennox International by 22.4% during the 1st quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 91,338 shares of the construction company's stock worth $51,225,000 after purchasing an additional 16,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lennox International by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 62,815 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $35,229,000 after buying an additional 1,158 shares during the last quarter. 67.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lennox International Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of LII opened at $593.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.37, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 1.41. The business's fifty day moving average price is $588.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $584.26. Lennox International has a 52 week low of $500.10 and a 52 week high of $689.44.

Lennox International (NYSE:LII - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $7.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.90 by $0.92. The business had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Lennox International had a return on equity of 99.81% and a net margin of 15.41%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.83 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Lennox International will post 22.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennox International announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the construction company to reacquire up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Lennox International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. This is a positive change from Lennox International's previous quarterly dividend of $1.15. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Lennox International's payout ratio is presently 22.23%.

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.

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