Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Purchases 9,521 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 431,881 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,521 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Leidos were worth $81,608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Leidos by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,528,630 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $556,677,000 after acquiring an additional 111,813 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in Leidos by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,909,142 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $460,203,000 after purchasing an additional 103,321 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Leidos by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,411,312 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $455,642,000 after purchasing an additional 145,826 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Leidos by 1.8% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,221,518 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $419,778,000 after purchasing an additional 39,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Leidos by 26.0% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,926,646 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $364,059,000 after purchasing an additional 397,385 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Elizabeth A. Porter sold 3,000 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.21, for a total transaction of $576,630.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,575 shares in the company, valued at $7,414,500.75. The trade was a 7.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LDOS shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Leidos in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Leidos in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Leidos from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group set a $204.00 target price on shares of Leidos in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $214.18.

Leidos Trading Up 0.1%

LDOS stock opened at $174.05 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $128.32 and a twelve month high of $205.77. The company has a market cap of $22.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.64, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a fifty day moving average of $183.96 and a 200-day moving average of $186.31.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The aerospace company reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $4.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.31 billion. Leidos had a return on equity of 32.95% and a net margin of 8.43%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.37 earnings per share. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.050-12.450 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.45%.

About Leidos

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.