New York State Common Retirement Fund Boosts Stake in Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,335 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,356 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Leonardo DRS were worth $851,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRS. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Leonardo DRS by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,915,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,061,000 after buying an additional 51,014 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Leonardo DRS by 16.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,239,569 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,371,000 after buying an additional 176,326 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Leonardo DRS by 8.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,012,370 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,569,000 after buying an additional 82,049 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in Leonardo DRS by 71.7% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 921,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,995,000 after buying an additional 384,522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Leonardo DRS by 32.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 736,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,809,000 after buying an additional 179,224 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 18.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on DRS. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Leonardo DRS has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.17.

Leonardo DRS Stock Down 1.3 %

DRS opened at $30.04 on Tuesday. Leonardo DRS, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.88 and a 12 month high of $37.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market cap of $7.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $33.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.67.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 6.59%. The firm had revenue of $981.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $942.18 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. Leonardo DRS’s payout ratio is currently 45.57%.

Leonardo DRS declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 20th that permits the company to buyback $75.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leonardo DRS

In other Leonardo DRS news, COO John Baylouny sold 8,235 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.50, for a total transaction of $284,107.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 81,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,824,273.50. This trade represents a 9.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total value of $120,269.43. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $458,732.58. The trade was a 20.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,770 shares of company stock valued at $2,226,047. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.