Brokerages Set ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Target Price at $137.22

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the eight brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $137.22.

Several analysts have issued reports on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company 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, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on ESAB from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded ESAB from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESAB news, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 1,500 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.42, for a total transaction of $189,630.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Olivier Biebuyck sold 1,417 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.15, for a total value of $185,839.55. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 14,989 shares in the company, valued at $1,965,807.35. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 7.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ESAB. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of ESAB in the 4th quarter valued at about $206,000. Savant Capital LLC increased its position in ESAB by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 4,667 shares of the company's stock valued at $560,000 after buying an additional 436 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in ESAB by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 15,800 shares of the company's stock worth $1,895,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in ESAB by 38.1% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 43,791 shares of the company's stock worth $5,252,000 after buying an additional 12,079 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in ESAB by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 148,737 shares of the company's stock worth $17,840,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares during the period. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ESAB Stock Down 0.3%

ESAB traded down $0.36 on Friday, hitting $123.77. 649,966 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 273,412. ESAB has a 12 month low of $88.54 and a 12 month high of $135.97. The company has a market cap of $7.50 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.82. The stock's fifty day moving average is $122.10 and its 200-day moving average is $122.04.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $678.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $633.66 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. ESAB's revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that ESAB will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This is an increase from ESAB's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. ESAB's payout ratio is presently 9.01%.

ESAB Company 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.