First Eagle Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRS - Free Report) by 20.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 300,885 shares of the company's stock after selling 77,400 shares during the quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC owned about 0.11% of Leonardo DRS worth $9,722,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of DRS. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 32.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 736,896 shares of the company's stock valued at $23,809,000 after buying an additional 179,224 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 32,647 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,055,000 after buying an additional 7,728 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 4.9% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 291,871 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,236,000 after buying an additional 13,613 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Leonardo DRS by 16.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,239,569 shares of the company's stock valued at $35,371,000 after buying an additional 176,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illumine Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Leonardo DRS in the fourth quarter valued at $1,784,000. 18.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America raised shares of Leonardo DRS from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $34.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John Baylouny sold 3,529 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.90, for a total transaction of $112,575.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 78,334 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,498,854.60. The trade was a 4.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total transaction of $120,269.43. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,262 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $458,732.58. This represents a 20.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,535 shares of company stock valued at $1,941,939. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Leonardo DRS Stock Performance

DRS stock traded up $1.80 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.95. The company had a trading volume of 1,133,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 616,235. The firm has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 44.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.11. Leonardo DRS, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.88 and a 12 month high of $37.99. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $32.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.94.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $981.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $942.18 million. Leonardo DRS had a net margin of 6.59% and a return on equity of 10.37%. On average, analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS, Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Leonardo DRS's dividend payout ratio is 45.57%.

Leonardo DRS declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 20th that permits the company to buyback $75.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Leonardo DRS

Leonardo DRS, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense electronic products and systems, and military support services. It operates through Advanced Sensing and Computing (ASC) segment, and Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) segments. The ASC segment designs, develops, and manufacture sensing and network computing technology that enables real-time situational awareness required for enhanced operational decision making and execution; and offers sensing capabilities span applications, such as missions requiring advanced detection, precision targeting and surveillance sensing, long range electro-optic/infrared, signals intelligence, and other intelligence systems including electronic warfare, ground vehicle sensing, active electronically scanned array tactical radars, dismounted soldier, and space sensing.