Heartland Advisors Inc. Has $7.89 Million Holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Heartland Advisors Inc. cut its position in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 32.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 43,726 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 21,448 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Leidos were worth $7,888,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LDOS. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in shares of Leidos by 46.5% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 3,073 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Leidos by 86.3% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 14,250 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,248,000 after purchasing an additional 6,600 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Leidos by 2.7% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 3,399 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Leidos by 20.2% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 41,405 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $6,532,000 after purchasing an additional 6,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis lifted its position in shares of Leidos by 222.3% during the second quarter. Natixis now owns 8,155 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,625 shares in the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Leidos

In other Leidos news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total value of $197,001.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,345,686.75. This represents a 12.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.78, for a total transaction of $317,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 49,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,855,799.28. The trade was a 3.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Leidos Trading Down 1.6%

LDOS opened at $121.57 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $15.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $139.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.08. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $121.20 and a fifty-two week high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The firm had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.97 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on LDOS shares. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Leidos from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Leidos from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Leidos from $205.00 to $193.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Leidos from $220.00 to $195.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.50.

Leidos Profile

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.