Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $175.87.

LDOS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Leidos from $162.00 to $156.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com lowered Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. William Blair lowered Leidos from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Leidos to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on Leidos from $185.00 to $165.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th.

Insider Activity at Leidos

In other Leidos news, Director Robert C. Kovarik, Jr. sold 1,511 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $203,320.16. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $862,260.48. This trade represents a 19.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Gary Stephen May sold 2,128 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.24, for a total value of $279,278.72. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,478,287.36. This trade represents a 15.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Leidos

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Leidos during the 4th quarter valued at about $266,419,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 510.6% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 999,661 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $144,011,000 after purchasing an additional 835,930 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 35.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,630,448 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $378,942,000 after purchasing an additional 682,532 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,405,726 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $392,133,000 after purchasing an additional 522,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,504,392 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $571,216,000 after purchasing an additional 405,256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Stock Performance

Leidos stock opened at $139.49 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $141.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $155.74. Leidos has a 52-week low of $123.22 and a 52-week high of $202.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.72.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The aerospace company reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.13. Leidos had a return on equity of 30.93% and a net margin of 7.53%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Leidos will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is 17.32%.

Leidos Company Profile

Leidos Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides services and solutions in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Defense Solutions, Civil, and Health segments. The Defense Solutions segment offers national security solutions and systems for air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace for the U.S.