First Trust Advisors LP Sells 17,818 Shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

First Trust Advisors LP lowered its position in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 162,455 shares of the company's stock after selling 17,818 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.27% of ESAB worth $19,485,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC increased its stake in ESAB by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 31,513 shares of the company's stock worth $3,349,000 after acquiring an additional 10,027 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of ESAB in the third quarter worth approximately $274,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in ESAB by 12.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 4,409 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in ESAB by 21.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,900,115 shares of the company's stock valued at $202,001,000 after purchasing an additional 337,983 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in ESAB by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 549 shares of the company's stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ESAB shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of ESAB from an "underperform" rating to an "inline" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group upgraded ESAB from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ESAB has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $135.88.

ESAB Trading Up 4.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ESAB traded up $5.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $123.36. 75,602 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 308,348. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.37. 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 business's fifty day moving average is $117.87 and its 200-day moving average is $121.40.

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

ESAB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. ESAB's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.41%.

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.