Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stock Holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 16.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 23,451 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,307 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Leidos were worth $4,431,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in Leidos in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Leidos in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Leidos during the second quarter worth about $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of Leidos by 471.4% during the second quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 200 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. raised its position in shares of Leidos by 66.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. now owns 216 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.04, for a total value of $543,120.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 41,575 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,526,738. This represents a 6.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on LDOS. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a report on Monday, December 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Leidos from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. UBS Group set a $204.00 price objective on Leidos in a report on Thursday. Zacks Research cut shares of Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Leidos currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $213.09.

Leidos Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of LDOS opened at $194.63 on Friday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.62 and a 52-week high of $205.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.69. The company has a market capitalization of $24.88 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.58.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.44. Leidos had a net margin of 8.11% and a return on equity of 33.02%. The firm had revenue of $4.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. Leidos has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.450-11.75 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Leidos’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Leidos’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Leidos Company Profile

Leidos is an American technology and engineering company that provides services and solutions to government and commercial customers, with a strong focus on national security, defense, intelligence, and civil government markets. The company delivers systems integration, engineering, cybersecurity, software development, data analytics, cloud migration and managed IT services, as well as mission support for complex programs. Leidos’ work spans areas such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), secure communications, sensors and systems engineering, and health IT solutions for public-sector healthcare programs.

Leidos traces its corporate roots to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and emerged as an independent, publicly traded company following a corporate separation in 2013.