Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Buys Shares of 20,219 Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 20,219 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,031,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LDOS. Longview Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Leidos during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Leidos by 94.7% in the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 148 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Leidos in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Leidos during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Wexford Capital LP purchased a new position in Leidos during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LDOS has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Leidos from $124.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $165.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a report on Monday, August 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Leidos from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Leidos from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Leidos from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $162.93.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LDOS opened at $140.59 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.60. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $98.86 and a one year high of $205.77. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $119.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $139.03. The company has a market capitalization of $17.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.52.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. Leidos had a return on equity of 30.81% and a net margin of 7.80%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.21 EPS. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

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

Leidos declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, July 31st that allows the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the aerospace company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $1,406,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 34,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,820,980.84. This trade represents a 22.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

Leidos Company 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.