Madison Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 117,318 Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 117,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,791,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 32.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 736,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,809,000 after buying an additional 179,224 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 31.0% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 32,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 7,728 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 4.9% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 291,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,236,000 after buying an additional 13,613 shares during the period. Illumine Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Leonardo DRS during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,784,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Leonardo DRS by 16.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,239,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,371,000 after purchasing an additional 176,326 shares in the last quarter. 18.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leonardo DRS

In other news, EVP Sally Wallace sold 8,353 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total value of $274,312.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,160 shares in the company, valued at $1,811,454.40. This represents a 13.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total value of $120,269.43. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $458,732.58. The trade was a 20.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 144,360 shares of company stock valued at $4,848,926. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Leonardo DRS Price Performance

NASDAQ DRS opened at $33.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.98. Leonardo DRS, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.88 and a 1 year high of $37.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $32.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.11.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $981.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $942.18 million. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 6.59%. On average, research analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $75.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. Leonardo DRS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on DRS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America raised Leonardo DRS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.83.

Leonardo DRS Company Profile

Leonardo DRS, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense electronic products and systems, and military support services. It operates through Advanced Sensing and Computing (ASC) segment, and Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) segments. The ASC segment designs, develops, and manufacture sensing and network computing technology that enables real-time situational awareness required for enhanced operational decision making and execution; and offers sensing capabilities span applications, such as missions requiring advanced detection, precision targeting and surveillance sensing, long range electro-optic/infrared, signals intelligence, and other intelligence systems including electronic warfare, ground vehicle sensing, active electronically scanned array tactical radars, dismounted soldier, and space sensing.