Cove Street Capital LLC Reduces Holdings in KBR, Inc. $KBR

Key Points

• Cove Street Capital LLC significantly reduced its holdings in KBR, Inc. by 50.4%, owning 5,800 shares valued at approximately $289,000 after selling over 5,892 shares in the first quarter.
• Multiple large investors have adjusted their positions in KBR, including Boston Partners increasing its stake by 35.2% and Nomura Holdings raising its position by 5,030.1%.
• KBR received several rating downgrades from research firms, with Bank of America and UBS Group lowering their ratings from "buy" to "neutral" and decreasing their price targets significantly.

Cove Street Capital LLC lessened its stake in KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR - Free Report) by 50.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,800 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 5,892 shares during the period. Cove Street Capital LLC's holdings in KBR were worth $289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of KBR by 35.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,384,527 shares of the construction company's stock worth $218,648,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142,111 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of KBR by 5,030.1% during the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 907,002 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $45,178,000 after buying an additional 889,322 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in KBR by 16.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,925,667 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $245,347,000 after acquiring an additional 683,280 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in KBR in the 1st quarter valued at $31,454,000. Finally, Hudson Way Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in KBR by 128.3% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Way Capital Management LLC now owns 1,053,710 shares of the construction company's stock worth $61,041,000 after acquiring an additional 592,063 shares in the last quarter. 97.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on KBR. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of KBR from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Bank of America lowered KBR from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. UBS Group cut KBR from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. KeyCorp cut shares of KBR from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of KBR from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $62.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Stuart Bradie sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.81, for a total value of $1,056,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 802,361 shares in the company, valued at $42,372,684.41. This trade represents a 2.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.11% of the company's stock.

KBR Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:KBR traded down $0.42 on Monday, reaching $49.24. 1,023,771 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,511,090. The company has a 50-day moving average of $48.49 and a 200-day moving average of $50.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The firm has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.73. KBR, Inc. has a 1-year low of $43.89 and a 1-year high of $72.60.

KBR (NYSE:KBR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The construction company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. KBR had a net margin of 4.52% and a return on equity of 33.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. KBR has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.780-3.88 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that KBR, Inc. will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KBR Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. KBR's payout ratio is currently 23.91%.

About KBR

KBR, Inc provides scientific, technology, and engineering solutions to governments and commercial customers worldwide. It operates through Government Solutions and Sustainable Technology Solutions segments. The Government Solutions segment offers life-cycle support solutions to defense, intelligence, space, aviation, and other programs and missions for military and other government agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.