Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Invests $3.98 Million in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 38,656 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,980,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Leidos during the 2nd quarter worth $1,024,436,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Leidos by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,022,359 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,086,434,000 after buying an additional 217,141 shares during the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Leidos by 16,475.4% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $646,463,000 after buying an additional 4,131,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Leidos by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,538,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $636,097,000 after buying an additional 64,909 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Leidos by 2.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,859,616 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $289,193,000 after buying an additional 47,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Leidos

In other Leidos news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $1,406,600.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 34,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,820,980.84. This represents a 22.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Gary May sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.85, for a total value of $140,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,204 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,437,233.40. The trade was a 8.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on LDOS. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Leidos from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Leidos from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Leidos from $210.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 13th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Leidos from $138.00 to $161.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Leidos from $152.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Leidos currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.93.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of LDOS stock opened at $132.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $122.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.83. The company has a market cap of $16.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.56. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $98.86 and a 12-month high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.35. Leidos had a return on equity of 30.81% and a net margin of 7.80%.The firm had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.38 EPS for the current year.

Leidos announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, July 31st that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the aerospace company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is 16.04%.

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.