Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New $650,000 Investment in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS)

Key Points

• Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC made a new investment of approximately $650,000 in Leidos Holdings, acquiring 4,820 shares during the first quarter.
• Several other hedge funds, including Sowell Financial Services LLC and Invesco Ltd., have also recently increased their positions in Leidos, indicating strong institutional interest.
• Leidos reported a quarterly earnings per share of $3.21, exceeding expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, effective September 30th.

Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,820 shares of the aerospace company's stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Leidos during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $267,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Leidos by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,630,448 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $378,942,000 after buying an additional 682,532 shares during the last quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Leidos by 47.8% in the 4th quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,841 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $2,858,000 after acquiring an additional 6,418 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Leidos by 263.7% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 13,706 shares of the aerospace company's stock worth $1,849,000 after acquiring an additional 9,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Leidos by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 437,535 shares of the aerospace company's stock worth $63,026,000 after acquiring an additional 4,903 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LDOS. UBS Group increased their price objective on Leidos from $168.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Leidos from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $205.00 in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Leidos from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $178.00 price objective on shares of Leidos and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Leidos from $173.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Leidos currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $179.46.

Leidos Stock Up 0.5%

LDOS opened at $175.31 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $157.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $146.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.65. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.62 and a fifty-two week high of $202.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.62.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $4.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.24 billion. Leidos had a return on equity of 33.57% and a net margin of 8.22%. Leidos's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.63 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Leidos's dividend payout ratio is presently 16.10%.

Leidos Company Profile

Leidos Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides services and solutions in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Defense Solutions, Civil, and Health segments. The Defense Solutions segment offers national security solutions and systems for air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace for the U.S.

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