Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wedmont Private Capital acquired a new stake in ESAB during the fourth quarter worth approximately $233,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in ESAB during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in ESAB by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 11,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,384,000 after acquiring an additional 953 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in ESAB by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of ESAB by 21.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,900,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,001,000 after acquiring an additional 337,983 shares during the last quarter. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ESAB shares. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of ESAB in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Loop Capital raised their target price on ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $144.00 target price (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $630,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,429,125. This trade represents a 30.61 % 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, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total transaction of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. Insiders own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

ESAB Stock Down 0.1 %

ESAB opened at $123.99 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $111.03. The stock has a market cap of $7.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.37. ESAB Co. has a 52 week low of $83.21 and a 52 week high of $135.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $620.50 million. ESAB had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 17.27%. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that ESAB Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. ESAB’s payout ratio is currently 7.49%.

ESAB Profile

ESAB Corporation engages in the formulation, development, manufacture, and supply of consumable products and equipment for use in cutting, joining, automated welding, and gas control equipment. Its comprehensive range of welding consumables includes electrodes, cored and solid wires, and fluxes using a range of specialty and other materials; and cutting consumables comprising electrodes, nozzles, shields, and tips.