ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Shares Sold by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. trimmed its holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 64.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,722 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,600 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in ESAB were worth $566,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ESAB. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of ESAB by 46.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 31,513 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,349,000 after purchasing an additional 10,027 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in ESAB by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,900,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,001,000 after buying an additional 337,983 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in ESAB during the 4th quarter worth about $254,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in ESAB by 47.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 70.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after buying an additional 1,073 shares during the period. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESAB news, insider Olivier Biebuyck sold 1,417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.15, for a total transaction of $185,839.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,989 shares in the company, valued at $1,965,807.35. This represents a 8.64% 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 7.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on ESAB from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group upgraded ESAB from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $123.00 to $147.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $143.00 price objective on ESAB in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.22.

ESAB Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE ESAB opened at $123.20 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. ESAB Co. has a 1-year low of $88.54 and a 1-year high of $135.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $119.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.37. The company has a market capitalization of $7.47 billion, a PE ratio of 28.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.36.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $678.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $633.66 million. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 9.66%. The business’s revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This is a boost from ESAB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. ESAB’s payout ratio is 9.01%.

ESAB Company 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.