LSV Asset Management Grows Stock Position in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 116.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 269,800 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after buying an additional 145,000 shares during the quarter. LSV Asset Management’s holdings in Leidos were worth $48,672,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 1,171 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 1.0% during the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,500 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,039,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 0.7% during the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 8,243 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,558,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 492 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 517 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on LDOS. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Leidos from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Leidos from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Leidos from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Leidos from $220.00 to $195.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Argus upgraded Leidos to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $193.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total transaction of $197,001.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,686.75. This trade 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. Also, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 2,000 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.78, for a total value of $317,560.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 49,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,855,799.28. This represents a 3.89% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of LDOS stock opened at $126.11 on Monday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.20 and a fifty-two week high of $205.77. The stock has a market cap of $15.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $149.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business posted $2.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.