Stock Buyback Plan Declared by Leidos (NYSE:LDOS)

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Friday, July 31st, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the aerospace company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Leidos Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of Leidos stock traded up $3.25 on Friday, hitting $115.67. The company had a trading volume of 1,180,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,314,389. Leidos has a 1 year low of $98.86 and a 1 year high of $205.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $113.37 and a 200-day moving average of $146.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.54.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. Leidos had a return on equity of 31.92% and a net margin of 8.15%.Leidos’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.97 EPS. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Leidos will post 12.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company set a $125.00 price target on Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Leidos from $195.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 target price (down from $200.00) on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Leidos from $215.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Leidos presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $163.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leidos

In related news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.