BlackRock Advisors LLC recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Leidos Holdings Inc (NYSE:LDOS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 1.25% to 5.81 million shares with purchase of 71661.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 4.22% valued currently at $623.54 million. In addition, Wellington Management Co. LLP raised its holdings by 0.27 million to 4.66 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.28% or 69012.0 shares – to 3.09 million shares.
With over 0.45 million Leidos Holdings Inc (LDOS) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $107.63 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $48.01 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 25.22% and its price on 12/22/23 gained nearly 0.98%. Currently, there are 137.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 135.97M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 16 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LDOS have a consensus price objective of $120.69. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $136.00 and a low of $100.00. The average price target is 10.82% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -7.63% over that period. But an upside of 20.86% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $125.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 187 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 105 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 311,759 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 82 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 102,777 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Leidos Holdings Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, BlackRock Equity Dividend Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 4.3 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $461.94 million. The company bought an additional 5129.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.13% of the shares outstanding. BlackRock Equity Dividend Fund sold 65630.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 3.9 million shares valued at over $418.71 million and representing 2.84% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 14721.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.32 million shares at a value of $355.86 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.41% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Leidos Holdings Inc (NYSE: LDOS) opened at $106.92, up $0.33 from a prior closing price of $106.59. However, the script later moved the day high at 108.06, up 0.98%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.07% and 17.81% over the past three months. LDOS shares are trading 2.32% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 1.70% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $76.58 and touched a high of $111.39 over the same period. LDOS has an average intraday trading volume of 716.45K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -0.45%, 4.77%, and 15.41% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Leidos Holdings Inc (NYSE: LDOS) shares accounts for 76.60% of the company’s 137.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 29.02%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 47.79% and 2.12% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $14.80B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.70. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 103.08, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.04. The company has a PEG of 12.27 and a Quick Ratio of 1.22 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.26. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.24% over the week and 1.36% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings Inc (LDOS) will achieve an EPS of $1.73 for the current quarter, $1.76 for the next quarter and $7.59 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.64 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.84. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.83 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 6.72%, and 7.73% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 8.40% over the next five years, compared to 15.87% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 16 brokerage firm advisors rate Leidos Holdings Inc (LDOS) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.69. Specifically, 10 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 5 of the 16 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
