ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Shares Sold by Pinebridge Investments L.P.

Pinebridge Investments L.P. decreased its holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) by 33.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,058 shares of the company's stock after selling 6,929 shares during the quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P.'s holdings in ESAB were worth $1,686,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ESAB. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in ESAB by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,538,081 shares of the company's stock valued at $904,118,000 after purchasing an additional 225,345 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in ESAB in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,446,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in ESAB by 149.2% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,972 shares of the company's stock worth $716,000 after acquiring an additional 3,576 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in ESAB by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 32,025 shares of the company's stock worth $3,841,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 25.6% in the 4th quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,358,204 shares of the company's stock valued at $162,903,000 after purchasing an additional 276,565 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ESAB shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group upgraded shares of ESAB from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Evercore ISI raised shares of ESAB from an "underperform" rating to an "inline" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $135.88.

ESAB Trading Up 4.9 %

Shares of ESAB traded up $5.76 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $123.99. The company had a trading volume of 283,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 279,412. The stock has a market cap of $7.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $117.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.40. ESAB Co. has a fifty-two week low of $88.54 and a fifty-two week high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. ESAB had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The firm had revenue of $678.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $633.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. ESAB's revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. ESAB's dividend payout ratio is currently 7.41%.

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.