Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) Trading Up 6.3% After Earnings Beat

Shares of Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS) were up 6.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $32.39 and last traded at $31.39. Approximately 189,849 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 599,731 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.54.

The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. Leonardo DRS had a net margin of 6.23% and a return on equity of 9.71%.

Leonardo DRS Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%.

Leonardo DRS announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, February 20th that permits the company to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DRS. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $30.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Leonardo DRS has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total transaction of $120,269.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $458,732.58. This represents a 20.77 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO William Lynn III sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.25, for a total value of $1,586,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 189,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,695,279.25. This represents a 19.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,089 shares of company stock worth $5,178,619. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Leonardo DRS

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 32.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 736,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,809,000 after purchasing an additional 179,224 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 31.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 32,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 7,728 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 4.9% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 291,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,236,000 after purchasing an additional 13,613 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 16.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,239,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,371,000 after purchasing an additional 176,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 46.2% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 196,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after purchasing an additional 62,042 shares during the last quarter. 18.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Leonardo DRS Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.70.

About Leonardo DRS

Leonardo DRS, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense electronic products and systems, and military support services. It operates through Advanced Sensing and Computing (ASC) segment, and Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) segments. The ASC segment designs, develops, and manufacture sensing and network computing technology that enables real-time situational awareness required for enhanced operational decision making and execution; and offers sensing capabilities span applications, such as missions requiring advanced detection, precision targeting and surveillance sensing, long range electro-optic/infrared, signals intelligence, and other intelligence systems including electronic warfare, ground vehicle sensing, active electronically scanned array tactical radars, dismounted soldier, and space sensing.