Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 1,090,475 Shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Cooke & Bieler LP lessened its stake in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) by 45.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,316,047 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,090,475 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP owned 2.18% of ESAB worth $113,996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in ESAB by 2,222.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,545,956 shares of the company's stock worth $150,391,000 after buying an additional 2,436,338 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in ESAB by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,517,838 shares of the company's stock worth $399,657,000 after buying an additional 1,920,386 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in ESAB by 2,239.3% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,569,713 shares of the company's stock worth $73,651,000 after buying an additional 1,502,611 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp acquired a new position in ESAB during the second quarter worth $54,191,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in ESAB by 24.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,892,015 shares of the company's stock worth $203,077,000 after buying an additional 566,224 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESAB news, Director Didier P. Teirlinck sold 2,512 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.00, for a total transaction of $248,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 33,863 shares in the company, valued at $3,352,437. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other ESAB news, Director Didier P. Teirlinck sold 2,512 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.00, for a total transaction of $248,688.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 33,863 shares in the company, valued at $3,352,437. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Rajiv Vinnakota sold 856 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.50, for a total transaction of $85,172.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,779 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $674,510.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,833 shares of company stock worth $1,074,985 over the last quarter. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of ESAB from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $111.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of ESAB from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of ESAB from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $93.75.

ESAB Stock Performance

ESAB traded up $0.23 during trading on Friday, hitting $106.02. 190,210 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 242,426. The firm has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.54. The stock's fifty day moving average is $102.61 and its 200 day moving average is $87.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. ESAB Co. has a one year low of $55.37 and a one year high of $114.77.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $689.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.51 million. ESAB had a net margin of 7.40% and a return on equity of 17.57%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that ESAB Co. will post 4.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 29th were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. ESAB's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.14%.

ESAB Company Profile

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.