Brokerages Set Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) PT at $160.27

Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $162.9333.

A number of brokerages have commented on LDOS. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Leidos from $138.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Leidos from $152.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Leidos from $124.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $165.00 price objective on Leidos in a report on Monday.

Insider Activity at Leidos

In other news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $1,406,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 34,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,820,980.84. This represents a 22.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.77% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Leidos

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LDOS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Leidos during the second quarter worth $1,024,436,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Leidos by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,022,359 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,086,434,000 after buying an additional 217,141 shares during the period. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Leidos by 16,475.4% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,156,784 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $646,463,000 after buying an additional 4,131,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Leidos by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,538,488 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $636,097,000 after acquiring an additional 64,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Leidos by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,859,616 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $289,193,000 after acquiring an additional 47,542 shares in the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Leidos Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of LDOS opened at $146.34 on Monday. Leidos has a 52-week low of $98.86 and a 52-week high of $205.77. The company has a market capitalization of $18.36 billion, a PE ratio of 13.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.52. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $116.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.35. Leidos had a net margin of 7.80% and a return on equity of 30.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.21 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Leidos will post 12.38 EPS for the current year.

Leidos announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, July 31st that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the aerospace company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

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.