Virtus Fund Advisers LLC Takes $116,000 Position in Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)

Virtus Fund Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $116,000. Leonardo DRS comprises approximately 0.4% of Virtus Fund Advisers LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 34,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,112,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in Leonardo DRS by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 18,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $594,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Leonardo DRS by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 8,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Leonardo DRS by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 7,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its holdings in Leonardo DRS by 37.0% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. 18.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on DRS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Leonardo DRS from $34.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Leonardo DRS from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America upgraded Leonardo DRS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $49.00 target price on Leonardo DRS and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Pamela Morrow sold 8,854 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total value of $290,765.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,335 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $569,281.40. This represents a 33.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO William Lynn III sold 45,000 shares of Leonardo DRS stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.70, for a total transaction of $1,471,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 328,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,738,810.80. This represents a 12.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 92,354 shares of company stock worth $3,019,773 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Leonardo DRS Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ DRS opened at $41.67 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.11. Leonardo DRS, Inc. has a one year low of $22.73 and a one year high of $43.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.09 billion, a PE ratio of 52.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.64.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $799.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $736.72 million. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 6.59%. Leonardo DRS’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. Leonardo DRS’s payout ratio is currently 41.38%.

Leonardo DRS announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Leonardo DRS Company Profile

Leonardo DRS, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense electronic products and systems, and military support services. It operates through Advanced Sensing and Computing (ASC) segment, and Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) segments. The ASC segment designs, develops, and manufacture sensing and network computing technology that enables real-time situational awareness required for enhanced operational decision making and execution; and offers sensing capabilities span applications, such as missions requiring advanced detection, precision targeting and surveillance sensing, long range electro-optic/infrared, signals intelligence, and other intelligence systems including electronic warfare, ground vehicle sensing, active electronically scanned array tactical radars, dismounted soldier, and space sensing.