Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $112.14 Million Stock Holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 593,455 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 21,455 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Leidos were worth $112,141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 46.5% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,073 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in Leidos by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 26,852 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $4,236,000 after purchasing an additional 3,179 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Leidos by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 15,439 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,436,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in Leidos in the second quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Leidos in the second quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LDOS shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised Leidos from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $204.00 price target on Leidos in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $213.09.

Leidos Stock Down 0.1%

Leidos stock opened at $188.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.54, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.62. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.62 and a 52-week high of $205.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $188.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $185.07.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.44. Leidos had a net margin of 8.11% and a return on equity of 33.02%. The company had revenue of $4.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. Equities analysts predict that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Leidos

In other Leidos news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of Leidos 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 directly owned 38,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,414,500.75. The trade was a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company 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.