Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS Shares Bought by Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 43.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 63,136 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,991 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Leidos were worth $9,819,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 46.5% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,073 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Leidos by 86.3% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 14,250 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,248,000 after purchasing an additional 6,600 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its position in Leidos by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Leidos by 20.2% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,405 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $6,532,000 after purchasing an additional 6,962 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis increased its stake in shares of Leidos by 222.3% in the second quarter. Natixis now owns 8,155 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,625 shares during the period. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Leidos

In other Leidos news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total transaction of $197,001.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,137 shares in the company, valued at $1,345,686.75. This represents a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LDOS. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Leidos from $140.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Leidos from $160.00 to $115.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Leidos from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Argus upgraded Leidos to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Leidos from $178.00 to $138.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Leidos has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $163.80.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of LDOS opened at $112.31 on Monday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $98.86 and a one year high of $205.77. The company has a 50-day moving average of $114.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.31. The stock has a market cap of $14.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.29, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a return on equity of 31.92% and a net margin of 8.15%.The business had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. Leidos’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.75%.

Leidos Profile

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.