Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $213.0909.

LDOS has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Leidos in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total value of $576,630.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 38,575 shares in the company, valued at $7,414,500.75. This represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Leidos

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LDOS. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Leidos in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Leidos by 77.6% during the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 151 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in Leidos in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Wexford Capital LP bought a new position in Leidos during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in Leidos during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. 76.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Leidos Price Performance

Shares of LDOS opened at $187.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 17.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.58. Leidos has a 52-week low of $123.62 and a 52-week high of $205.77. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $188.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $184.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.62.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.44. The company had revenue of $4.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. Leidos had a net margin of 8.11% and a return on equity of 33.02%. Leidos has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.450-11.75 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Leidos will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th were paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a positive change from Leidos’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. Leidos’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

About Leidos

Leidos is an American technology and engineering company that provides services and solutions to government and commercial customers, with a strong focus on national security, defense, intelligence, and civil government markets. The company delivers systems integration, engineering, cybersecurity, software development, data analytics, cloud migration and managed IT services, as well as mission support for complex programs. Leidos’ work spans areas such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), secure communications, sensors and systems engineering, and health IT solutions for public-sector healthcare programs.

Leidos traces its corporate roots to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and emerged as an independent, publicly traded company following a corporate separation in 2013.