ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) Downgraded by Stifel Nicolaus to Hold

Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has $130.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of $138.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $144.00 target price (up previously from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI lowered ESAB from an "in-line" rating to an "underperform" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $124.14.

ESAB Price Performance

Shares of ESAB traded down $1.75 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $122.36. 330,785 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 252,972. The company has a market cap of $7.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.37. ESAB has a 1 year low of $76.08 and a 1 year high of $135.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $111.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.73. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.27% and a net margin of 9.47%. The firm had revenue of $673.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $620.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The company's revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that ESAB will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. ESAB's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESAB news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $6,627,789.92. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in ESAB by 5,764.3% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,105 shares of the company's stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 4,035 shares in the last quarter. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in ESAB in the first quarter valued at about $222,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of ESAB during the first quarter worth about $378,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of ESAB by 11.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,424,115 shares of the company's stock valued at $710,316,000 after acquiring an additional 653,377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in ESAB by 17.7% in the 1st 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.13% 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.