Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Leidos Holdings has a consensus analyst rating of "Moderate Buy" from 13 firms, with six holds, six buys, and one strong buy. The average 1-year price target is about $193.64.
• Recent analyst actions were mixed: Citigroup and Royal Bank of Canada cut their price targets, while Argus upgraded the stock to strong-buy. Weiss Ratings also downgraded Leidos to hold.
• Leidos reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.13 versus $2.88 expected and revenue of $4.40 billion versus $4.28 billion expected. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.43 per share.

Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS - Get Free Report) have received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $193.6364.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on LDOS shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Leidos from $232.00 to $178.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Argus upgraded shares of Leidos to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Leidos from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Leidos from $215.00 to $180.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Leidos from $220.00 to $195.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th.

Leidos Stock Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $130.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.56. The company's fifty day moving average is $160.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.21. Leidos has a 52-week low of $127.86 and a 52-week high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The business had revenue of $4.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.97 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Leidos will post 12.26 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Leidos's payout ratio is 15.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Leidos news, 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 value of $197,001.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,137 shares in the company, valued at $1,345,686.75. The trade was a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $317,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 49,476 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,855,799.28. This trade represents a 3.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Leidos

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LDOS. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Leidos by 16,475.4% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $646,463,000 after buying an additional 4,131,706 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Leidos in the fourth quarter valued at about $318,839,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new position in Leidos in the third quarter valued at about $242,464,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Leidos by 998.6% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,097,724 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $170,718,000 after buying an additional 997,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Leidos by 64.4% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $241,256,000 after buying an additional 598,974 shares in the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Leidos Company 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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