Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Stock Position in Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,934,919 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 263,002 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 3.00% of Leonardo DRS worth $256,377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRS. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Leonardo DRS by 87.7% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,067,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,495,000 after purchasing an additional 498,979 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake 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 valued at $23,809,000 after buying an additional 179,224 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Leonardo DRS by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,239,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,371,000 after acquiring an additional 176,326 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Leonardo DRS during the 4th quarter worth $4,304,000. Finally, Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Leonardo DRS during the fourth quarter worth $3,791,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 18.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on DRS. Bank of America upgraded Leonardo DRS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Leonardo DRS has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.83.

Leonardo DRS Stock Down 7.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:DRS opened at $30.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.16, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.98. Leonardo DRS, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.88 and a 1 year high of $37.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.11.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $981.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $942.18 million. Leonardo DRS had a net margin of 6.59% and a return on equity of 10.37%. Equities analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. Leonardo DRS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.57%.

Leonardo DRS declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, February 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $75.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Leonardo DRS

In other news, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of Leonardo DRS stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total transaction of $120,269.43. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John Baylouny sold 3,529 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.90, for a total value of $112,575.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 78,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,498,854.60. This represents a 4.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 144,360 shares of company stock valued at $4,848,926 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% 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.