Foster & Motley Inc. Buys New Stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Foster & Motley Inc. acquired a new stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 31,365 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,230,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Leidos in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,024,436,000. Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Leidos by 16,475.4% during the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $646,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,131,706 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Leidos in the 4th quarter valued at about $318,839,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Leidos by 998.6% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,097,724 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $170,718,000 after acquiring an additional 997,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in Leidos in the second quarter valued at approximately $68,998,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Leidos from $210.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Leidos from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Leidos from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 price objective (down from $200.00) on shares of Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Leidos from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.93.

Leidos Price Performance

LDOS stock opened at $143.81 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $18.05 billion, a PE ratio of 13.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $115.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.81. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $98.86 and a 12-month high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. Leidos had a return on equity of 30.81% and a net margin of 7.80%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.21 EPS. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.38 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Leidos declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, July 31st that authorizes the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the aerospace company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Leidos news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $1,406,600.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 34,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,820,980.84. This represents a 22.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

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.