Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $172.0833.

A number of research analysts recently commented on LDOS shares. Weiss Ratings cut Leidos from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $125.00 price target on Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Leidos from $178.00 to $138.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Leidos in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $165.00 price objective for the company.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leidos

In related news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 2,000 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.78, for a total value of $317,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 49,476 shares in the company, valued at $7,855,799.28. This trade represents a 3.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,345,686.75. This represents a 12.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Leidos

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Diamant Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Leidos by 16,475.4% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $646,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,131,706 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Leidos by 1.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 22,013 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Leidos by 25,505.4% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 42,505 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $7,668,000 after acquiring an additional 42,339 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Leidos during the fourth quarter worth about $318,839,000. Finally, National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Leidos by 275.0% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 278,134 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $50,175,000 after buying an additional 203,958 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Price Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $108.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $123.69 and a 200 day moving average of $157.98. Leidos has a one year low of $98.86 and a one year high of $205.77. The company has a market capitalization of $13.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.94, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a return on equity of 31.92% and a net margin of 8.15%.The company had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. Leidos’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Leidos will post 12.26 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Leidos’s payout ratio is currently 15.75%.

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.