Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $40.00 price objective on the stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on DRS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.83.

Leonardo DRS Stock Up 4.8 %

Shares of DRS stock opened at $31.26 on Friday. Leonardo DRS has a 1-year low of $19.88 and a 1-year high of $37.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.75. 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 company has a market cap of $8.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.98.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $942.18 million. On average, research analysts expect that Leonardo DRS will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Leonardo DRS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.57%.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William Lynn III sold 45,000 shares of Leonardo DRS stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.25, for a total value of $1,586,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 189,937 shares in the company, valued at $6,695,279.25. The trade was a 19.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of Leonardo DRS stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total value of $120,269.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $458,732.58. This represents a 20.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,770 shares of company stock valued at $2,226,047 in the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Leonardo DRS

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 233.3% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 226.8% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Leonardo DRS by 37.0% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Leonardo DRS by 42.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 771 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtus Fund Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Leonardo DRS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $116,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 18.76% of the company’s stock.

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.