ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Shares Sold by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 19.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,490 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,690 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in ESAB were worth $9,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ESAB. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in ESAB by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 541,561 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,955,000 after acquiring an additional 73,405 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of ESAB in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,365,000. Hancock Whitney Corp lifted its stake in shares of ESAB by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 16,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,032,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of ESAB by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,538,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $904,118,000 after purchasing an additional 225,345 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in ESAB in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,446,000. 91.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $143.00 price objective on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday. UBS Group raised shares of ESAB from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded 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 report on Monday, February 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ESAB currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $136.67.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB opened at $122.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $7.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business’s 50 day moving average is $117.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.71. ESAB Co. has a 52-week low of $88.54 and a 52-week high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $678.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $633.66 million. ESAB had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.21%.

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.