Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Purchases 5,478 Shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 93.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,365 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,478 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Leidos were worth $1,170,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LDOS. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Leidos in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,024,436,000. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 4,131,706 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Leidos during the 4th quarter worth approximately $318,839,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Leidos by 998.6% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,097,724 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $170,718,000 after purchasing an additional 997,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Leidos during the second quarter worth approximately $77,623,000. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Leidos Stock Performance

NYSE LDOS opened at $138.86 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.41. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $98.86 and a 1 year high of $205.77.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The aerospace company reported $3.26 EPS 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 business had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.200-12.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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 shares. This buyback authorization allows the aerospace company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LDOS shares. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on Leidos from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Leidos from $124.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective on shares of Leidos in a report on Sunday, August 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Leidos from $152.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Leidos from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Leidos currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.93.

Insider Activity at Leidos

In other news, Director Noel B. Geer sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $1,406,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 34,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,820,980.84. The trade was a 22.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock.

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.