Elizabeth Porter Sells 3,000 Shares of Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) Stock

Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) insider Elizabeth Porter sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total value of $576,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 38,575 shares in the company, valued at $7,414,500.75. This represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Leidos Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE LDOS traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $193.09. The company had a trading volume of 786,829 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,016,113. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.62 and a twelve month high of $205.77. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $188.91 and its 200-day moving average is $183.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.69 billion, a PE ratio of 18.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.58.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.44. Leidos had a return on equity of 33.02% and a net margin of 8.11%.The business had revenue of $4.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. Leidos has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.450-11.75 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Leidos’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Leidos’s payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LDOS. Argus increased their target price on Leidos from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a research note on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group set a $204.00 target price on shares of Leidos in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Leidos from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $213.09.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Leidos

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Leidos by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,805,218 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,096,954,000 after purchasing an additional 78,534 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Leidos by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,528,630 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $556,677,000 after buying an additional 111,813 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Leidos by 3.7% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,909,142 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $460,203,000 after buying an additional 103,321 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Leidos by 6.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,411,312 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $455,642,000 after acquiring an additional 145,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake 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 worth $419,778,000 after purchasing an additional 39,378 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

About Leidos

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.