National Pension Service Purchases 15,695 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

National Pension Service raised its position in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,176 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,695 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.06% of Leidos worth $14,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Leidos during the 2nd quarter worth $261,501,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Leidos by 64.4% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,529,261 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $241,256,000 after acquiring an additional 598,974 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Leidos by 21.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,433,712 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $223,731,000 after acquiring an additional 250,555 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Leidos by 1,427.1% during the third quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 259,600 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $49,054,000 after acquiring an additional 242,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Leidos by 753.0% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 215,939 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $34,067,000 after acquiring an additional 190,625 shares in the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of LDOS stock opened at $188.04 on Tuesday. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.62 and a 52-week high of $205.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $24.04 billion, a PE ratio of 17.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.59. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $188.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $185.07.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.44. Leidos had a return on equity of 33.02% and a net margin of 8.11%.The company had revenue of $4.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.28 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Leidos

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 transaction, the insider directly owned 38,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,414,500.75. The trade was a 7.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on LDOS. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Leidos from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Leidos from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Citigroup upped their target price on Leidos from $218.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Leidos in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Leidos from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Leidos has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $213.09.

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.