ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $124.14.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

ESAB Price Performance

NYSE:ESAB opened at $127.54 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $114.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $104.31. ESAB has a 12 month low of $76.08 and a 12 month high of $135.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.37.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.13. ESAB had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 17.27%. The company had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.50 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. ESAB’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that ESAB will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. ESAB’s payout ratio is currently 7.49%.

Insider Activity at ESAB

In other ESAB news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total transaction of $7,269,395.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 53,902 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,627,789.92. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $630,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,429,125. This represents a 30.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773 in the last 90 days. 7.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ESAB

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in ESAB by 5,764.3% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $454,000 after buying an additional 4,035 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in ESAB during the first quarter worth $378,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in ESAB by 17.7% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 33,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,720,000 after purchasing an additional 5,055 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in ESAB in the first quarter valued at $6,174,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of ESAB in the first quarter valued at $240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

About ESAB

ESAB Corporation engages in the formulation, development, manufacture, and supply of consumable products and equipment for use in cutting, joining, automated welding, and gas control equipment. Its comprehensive range of welding consumables includes electrodes, cored and solid wires, and fluxes using a range of specialty and other materials; and cutting consumables comprising electrodes, nozzles, shields, and tips.