FORA Capital LLC Has $484,000 Stock Holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

FORA Capital LLC decreased its stake in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 31.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,549 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,106 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC’s holdings in ESAB were worth $484,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESAB. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of ESAB by 7.3% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 432,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,827,000 after acquiring an additional 29,453 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of ESAB by 44.3% in the 2nd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 64,239 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,066,000 after purchasing an additional 19,721 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of ESAB by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 31,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,536,000 after buying an additional 9,062 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of ESAB by 8.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 71,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,771,000 after buying an additional 5,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in ESAB by 181.7% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,000 after buying an additional 812 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 price objective (up previously from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a report on Friday, November 8th. Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ESAB currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.14.

ESAB Stock Down 0.4 %

ESAB stock opened at $128.26 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $116.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.75. ESAB Co. has a 1-year low of $76.08 and a 1-year high of $135.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.04, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $620.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. ESAB’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given 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 7.49%.

Insider Transactions at ESAB

In other ESAB news, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $630,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 11,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,429,125. This represents a 30.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,902 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,627,789.92. The trade was a 52.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. Company insiders own 7.00% 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.