Bank of New York Mellon Corp Cuts Stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Key Points

• Bank of New York Mellon cut its Leidos stake by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 75,418 shares and ending with 703,682 shares worth about $126.9 million.
• Other institutional investors have been active in Leidos, with Norges Bank and MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS buying new positions and hedge funds owning 76.12% of the stock overall.
• Analysts have turned more cautious: several firms lowered ratings or price targets, though the consensus remains Moderate Buy with an average price target of $187.50.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS - Free Report) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 703,682 shares of the aerospace company's stock after selling 75,418 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.55% of Leidos worth $126,944,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Leidos in the 4th quarter valued at $318,839,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. bought a new stake in Leidos in the 3rd quarter valued at $242,464,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Leidos by 64.4% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $241,256,000 after acquiring an additional 598,974 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in Leidos by 2,924.4% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 405,181 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $73,095,000 after acquiring an additional 391,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in Leidos by 663.3% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 355,824 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $64,191,000 after acquiring an additional 309,206 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LDOS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Leidos from $232.00 to $178.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Leidos from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Argus raised shares of Leidos to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Leidos from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Leidos from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $187.50.

Leidos Price Performance

LDOS stock opened at $124.65 on Friday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $121.20 and a 12 month high of $205.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $141.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $168.60. The stock has a market cap of $15.68 billion, a PE ratio of 11.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.50.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The firm had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.97 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Leidos's payout ratio is 15.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Leidos news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.78, for a total value of $317,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 49,476 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,855,799.28. The trade was a 3.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total transaction of $197,001.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,137 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,345,686.75. This trade represents a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Leidos 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.

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