ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st.

ESAB has a dividend payout ratio of 5.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect ESAB to earn $5.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.9%.

ESAB Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of ESAB stock traded down $5.07 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $124.44. 318,777 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 254,358. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.34. ESAB has a 1-year low of $82.44 and a 1-year high of $135.97. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $122.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $620.50 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ESAB will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of ESAB in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $144.00 target price (up previously from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. One investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ESAB has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.43.

Insider Transactions at ESAB

In other ESAB news, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $630,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 11,433 shares in the company, valued at $1,429,125. This trade represents a 30.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 53,902 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,627,789.92. This trade represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 7.20% of the company’s stock.

ESAB Company Profile

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.