Voleon Capital Management LP Acquires New Holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Voleon Capital Management LP bought a new position in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,651 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $438,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in ESAB by 21.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,900,115 shares of the company's stock worth $202,001,000 after purchasing an additional 337,983 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of ESAB during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of ESAB by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 32,775 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,931,000 after acquiring an additional 2,571 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of ESAB by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,279 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 2,147 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in ESAB in the 4th quarter worth approximately $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ESAB shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of ESAB from $125.00 to $109.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded ESAB from an "underperform" rating to an "inline" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded ESAB from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ESAB has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $133.75.

ESAB Stock Performance

NYSE:ESAB opened at $118.10 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. ESAB Co. has a 12-month low of $88.54 and a 12-month high of $135.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $117.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.40.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.06. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 9.66%. The business had revenue of $678.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $633.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. ESAB's revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.27%. ESAB's dividend payout ratio is 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.

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