Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Cuts Position in ESAB Corporation $ESAB

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD reduced its stake in ESAB Corporation by 0.5% in Q1, now holding 7,497,446 shares worth approximately $873.45 million.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $137.88 for ESAB, with five analysts rating it as a Buy and three as a Hold.
• ESAB reported a quarterly revenue of $715.59 million, exceeding expectations, and achieved an EPS of $1.36, slightly above the consensus estimate of $1.34.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD trimmed its stake in ESAB Corporation (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,497,446 shares of the company's stock after selling 40,635 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 12.37% of ESAB worth $873,453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of ESAB in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ESAB by 204.8% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 320 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in ESAB by 706.7% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 363 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in ESAB in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in ESAB by 1,128.9% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 467 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ESAB news, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,067 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.05, for a total value of $459,774.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Olivier Biebuyck sold 1,440 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.49, for a total value of $192,225.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 14,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,000,881.61. This represents a 8.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 7,007 shares of company stock valued at $841,630. 7.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital upgraded ESAB from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $130.00 to $140.00 in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of ESAB from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $141.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of ESAB from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $143.00 price target on shares of ESAB in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, ESAB presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $140.38.

ESAB Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of ESAB traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $117.69. The company had a trading volume of 70,219 shares, compared to its average volume of 325,069. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $122.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $121.62. ESAB Corporation has a 1 year low of $93.15 and a 1 year high of $135.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.27.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. ESAB had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 9.36%.The company had revenue of $715.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $670.80 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.32 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ESAB Corporation will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

About ESAB

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.