Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Leidos in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Leidos presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $213.09.

Leidos Price Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $188.05 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $188.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Leidos has a 12-month low of $123.62 and a 12-month high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.44. Leidos had a return on equity of 33.02% and a net margin of 8.11%.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. Analysts forecast that Leidos will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Leidos

In other Leidos news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total transaction of $576,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 38,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,414,500.75. This trade represents a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Leidos

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Leidos during the second quarter valued at $261,501,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new stake in Leidos during the 3rd quarter worth about $242,464,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Leidos by 64.4% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $241,256,000 after buying an additional 598,974 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 2,924.4% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 405,181 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $73,095,000 after buying an additional 391,784 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of Leidos by 663.3% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 355,824 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $64,191,000 after buying an additional 309,206 shares during the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Leidos

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.