Aristeia Capital L.L.C. Acquires New Shares in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Aristeia Capital L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,887 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $346,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 70.3% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 218 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of ESAB in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of ESAB during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in ESAB by 871.0% during the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 301 shares of the company's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in shares of ESAB during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird set a $143.00 price objective on ESAB in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI raised shares of ESAB from an "underperform" rating to an "inline" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of ESAB from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $136.67.

ESAB Price Performance

ESAB stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $122.42. The stock had a trading volume of 250,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 279,667. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $117.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.71. ESAB Co. has a 52 week low of $88.54 and a 52 week high of $135.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.36.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 9.66%. The firm had revenue of $678.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $633.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. ESAB's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.21%.

ESAB Profile

ESAB Corporation engages in the formulation, development, manufacture, and supply of consumable products and equipment for use in cutting, joining, automated welding, and gas control equipment. Its comprehensive range of welding consumables includes electrodes, cored and solid wires, and fluxes using a range of specialty and other materials; and cutting consumables comprising electrodes, nozzles, shields, and tips.