Heartland Advisors Inc. Sells 20,114 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Heartland Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 23.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 65,174 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 20,114 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Leidos were worth $12,315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LDOS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Leidos by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,528,630 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $556,677,000 after purchasing an additional 111,813 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Leidos by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,909,142 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $460,203,000 after purchasing an additional 103,321 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Leidos by 1.8% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,221,518 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $419,778,000 after buying an additional 39,378 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Leidos in the second quarter worth about $261,501,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Leidos by 64.4% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $241,256,000 after buying an additional 598,974 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Price Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $175.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $22.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.41, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.59. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.62 and a 12 month high of $205.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $187.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The aerospace company reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $4.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.31 billion. Leidos had a net margin of 8.11% and a return on equity of 33.02%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Leidos’s payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on LDOS shares. UBS Group set a $204.00 target price on Leidos in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Zacks Research downgraded Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Leidos from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Citigroup raised their target price on Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $213.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Leidos news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total transaction of $576,630.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 38,575 shares in the company, valued at $7,414,500.75. The trade was a 7.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Company Profile

Leidos is an American technology and engineering company that provides services and solutions to government and commercial customers, with a strong focus on national security, defense, intelligence, and civil government markets. The company delivers systems integration, engineering, cybersecurity, software development, data analytics, cloud migration and managed IT services, as well as mission support for complex programs. Leidos’ work spans areas such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), secure communications, sensors and systems engineering, and health IT solutions for public-sector healthcare programs.

Leidos traces its corporate roots to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and emerged as an independent, publicly traded company following a corporate separation in 2013.