Nomura Holdings Inc. Makes New Investment in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $904,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in ESAB by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,538,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $904,118,000 after purchasing an additional 225,345 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in ESAB by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,546,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $665,200,000 after purchasing an additional 20,741 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in ESAB by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,202,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,176,000 after purchasing an additional 302,453 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in ESAB by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,097,624 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,589,000 after purchasing an additional 318,018 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its holdings in ESAB by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,888,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $226,529,000 after purchasing an additional 31,248 shares in the last quarter. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ESAB Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESAB opened at $129.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $118.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.45. ESAB Co. has a 1-year low of $88.54 and a 1-year high of $135.97. The firm has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 9.66%. The business had revenue of $678.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $633.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. ESAB’s revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. This is a positive change from ESAB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio is 9.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ESAB

In other ESAB news, insider Olivier Biebuyck sold 1,417 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.15, for a total transaction of $185,839.55. Following the sale, the insider now owns 14,989 shares in the company, valued at $1,965,807.35. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 7.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ESAB. UBS Group raised ESAB from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Robert W. Baird set a $143.00 target price on ESAB in a report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on ESAB from $109.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on ESAB from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.22.

ESAB Profile

ESAB Corporation engages in the formulation, development, manufacture, and supply of consumable products and equipment for use in cutting, joining, automated welding, and gas control equipment. Its comprehensive range of welding consumables includes electrodes, cored and solid wires, and fluxes using a range of specialty and other materials; and cutting consumables comprising electrodes, nozzles, shields, and tips.