Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 5,326 Shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Lafayette Investments Inc. cut its holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,581 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,326 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in ESAB were worth $3,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in ESAB by 55.5% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 647 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of ESAB during the second quarter worth $46,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 23.4% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 811 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 39.4% during the fourth quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 1,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 28,250.0% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,134 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130 shares during the period. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ESAB shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of ESAB from $106.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of ESAB from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $111.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of ESAB from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.75.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $105.76. The stock had a trading volume of 19,647 shares, compared to its average volume of 235,139. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.13. ESAB Co. has a one year low of $55.37 and a one year high of $114.77. The firm has a market cap of $6.39 billion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

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

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were paid a $0.06 dividend. 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 (DPR) is currently 7.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESAB news, Director Didier P. Teirlinck sold 2,512 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.00, for a total transaction of $248,688.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 33,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,352,437. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Didier P. Teirlinck sold 2,512 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now owns 33,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,352,437. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rajiv Vinnakota sold 856 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.50, for a total transaction of $85,172.00. Following the sale, the director now directly 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 have sold a total of 10,833 shares of company stock worth $1,074,985 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

ESAB 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.