First Trust Advisors LP Sells 208,247 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,781,469 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 208,247 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 2.18% of Leidos worth $525,586,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Leidos by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,528,630 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $556,677,000 after purchasing an additional 111,813 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Leidos by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,909,142 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $460,203,000 after buying an additional 103,321 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Leidos by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,221,518 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $419,778,000 after buying an additional 39,378 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Leidos in the second quarter valued at $261,501,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in Leidos by 64.4% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $241,256,000 after acquiring an additional 598,974 shares during the period. 76.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of LDOS stock opened at $178.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.70. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $128.32 and a 52 week high of $205.77. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $184.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.49. The company has a market capitalization of $22.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The aerospace company reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.19. Leidos had a net margin of 8.43% and a return on equity of 32.95%. The company had revenue of $4.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.37 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.050-12.450 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is 15.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LDOS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Leidos from $220.00 to $205.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Leidos from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group set a $204.00 target price on Leidos in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Leidos presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $214.18.

Insider Activity

In other Leidos news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,414,500.75. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.