Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) Stock Price Down 4.1% – Time to Sell?

Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)’s stock price traded down 4.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $44.11 and last traded at $44.17. 1,038,586 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 20% from the average session volume of 866,184 shares. The stock had previously closed at $46.07.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Leonardo DRS from $34.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America upgraded Leonardo DRS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $33.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, BTIG Research set a $49.00 price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.50.

Leonardo DRS Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.51. The stock has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.63.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. Leonardo DRS had a net margin of 6.59% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business had revenue of $799.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $736.72 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. Leonardo DRS’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Leonardo DRS’s payout ratio is 41.38%.

Leonardo DRS announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 0.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John Baylouny sold 3,529 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.96, for a total value of $112,786.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 137,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,387,564.68. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Pamela Morrow sold 8,854 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total transaction of $290,765.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,335 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $569,281.40. This trade represents a 33.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 92,354 shares of company stock valued at $3,019,773 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Leonardo DRS

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in Leonardo DRS by 183.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,457,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $111,715,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236,661 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Leonardo DRS in the first quarter worth $31,254,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Leonardo DRS by 16.0% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,848,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,298,000 after purchasing an additional 804,938 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Leonardo DRS in the fourth quarter valued at $24,920,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in shares of Leonardo DRS by 87.7% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,067,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,495,000 after buying an additional 498,979 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 18.76% of the company’s stock.

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.