Wedmont Private Capital Acquires New Shares in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Wedmont Private Capital purchased a new stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of ESAB during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Diversified Trust Co raised its position in shares of ESAB by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 11,538 shares of the company's stock worth $1,384,000 after buying an additional 953 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of ESAB by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 549 shares of the company's stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of ESAB by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,900,115 shares of the company's stock worth $202,001,000 after acquiring an additional 337,983 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 12.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 4,409 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on ESAB. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on ESAB in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut ESAB from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Evercore ISI cut shares of ESAB from an "in-line" rating to an "underperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $144.00 price objective (up previously from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $133.43.

ESAB Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ESAB traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $123.99. The company had a trading volume of 207,833 shares, compared to its average volume of 217,797. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.68. The firm has a market cap of $7.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.37. ESAB Co. has a 1-year low of $83.21 and a 1-year high of $135.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.92.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that ESAB Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. ESAB's dividend payout ratio is 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 dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total value of $7,269,395.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,902 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,627,789.92. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total value of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock valued at $8,431,773. Company 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.