The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 3,656 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company decreased its stake in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 5.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 63,556 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 3,656 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Leidos were worth $6,544,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LDOS. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in Leidos by 46.5% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,073 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Leidos by 86.3% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 14,250 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,248,000 after buying an additional 6,600 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Leidos by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $536,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Leidos by 20.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,405 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $6,532,000 after acquiring an additional 6,962 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis lifted its position in Leidos by 222.3% during the 2nd quarter. Natixis now owns 8,155 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,625 shares during the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LDOS shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Leidos from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $165.00 target price on Leidos in a report on Monday, August 17th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Leidos from $124.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on Leidos from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.93.

Insider Transactions at Leidos

In other Leidos news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $1,406,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 34,274 shares in the company, valued at $4,820,980.84. This represents a 22.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Leidos Stock Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $140.59 on Monday. 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 1.60, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market cap of $17.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.11, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.52. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.03.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company 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 quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is 16.04%.

Leidos declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Friday, July 31st that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the aerospace company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.