Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 6,500 Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,500 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,011,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,022,359 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,086,434,000 after purchasing an additional 217,141 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Leidos by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,538,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $636,097,000 after buying an additional 64,909 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Leidos by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,411,312 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $455,642,000 after buying an additional 145,826 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Leidos by 26.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,926,646 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $364,059,000 after buying an additional 397,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Leidos during the 4th quarter worth $318,839,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total transaction of $197,001.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,345,686.75. The trade was a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.78, for a total value of $317,560.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 49,476 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,855,799.28. The trade was a 3.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Price Performance

Leidos stock opened at $108.58 on Friday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $98.86 and a one year high of $205.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.40. The business has a fifty day moving average of $122.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $157.63. The company has a market cap of $13.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.54.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The company had revenue of $4.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Leidos from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Leidos from $215.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Leidos from $220.00 to $195.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Argus raised Leidos to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.08.

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.