First Trust Advisors LP Sells 1,152,978 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

First Trust Advisors LP cut its holdings in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 41.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,597,764 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 1,152,978 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 1.27% of Leidos worth $248,484,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Diamant Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Leidos by 16,475.4% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $646,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,131,706 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Leidos by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,421,634 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $256,463,000 after buying an additional 22,013 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Leidos by 25,505.4% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 42,505 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $7,668,000 after buying an additional 42,339 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Leidos in the fourth quarter valued at about $318,839,000. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of Leidos by 275.0% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 278,134 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $50,175,000 after buying an additional 203,958 shares during the period. 76.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Leidos

In related news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total value of $197,001.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,686.75. The trade was a 12.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Leidos Stock Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $107.31 on Thursday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $98.86 and a twelve month high of $205.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $13.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.41.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Leidos from $210.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Leidos from $178.00 to $138.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $125.00 price objective on Leidos in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Leidos presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $163.80.

Leidos 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.