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

Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $213.0909.

LDOS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Leidos from $185.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, UBS Group set a $204.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a report on Thursday, January 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leidos

In other news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total transaction of $576,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 38,575 shares in the company, valued at $7,414,500.75. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Leidos

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LDOS. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in shares of Leidos in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Leidos by 77.6% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 151 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Leidos during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Leidos during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Leidos in the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Leidos stock opened at $187.70 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $188.88 and its 200 day moving average is $184.37. The firm has a market capitalization 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 1 year low of $123.62 and a 1 year high of $205.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.44. The firm had revenue of $4.47 billion for 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Leidos will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Increases Dividend

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

Leidos Company 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.