ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Receives $133.43 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $133.43.

ESAB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of ESAB in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 target price (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th.

ESAB Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE:ESAB opened at $122.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $124.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $107.82. ESAB has a 1-year low of $82.44 and a 1-year high of $135.97. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $673.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.50 million. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.27% and a net margin of 9.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ESAB will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total transaction of $531,877.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of the business’s 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. The trade was 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 over the last quarter. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ESAB

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in ESAB by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,196,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,512,000 after acquiring an additional 127,714 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of ESAB by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,692,161 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,028,000 after purchasing an additional 55,458 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ESAB by 19.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,160,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,353,000 after purchasing an additional 190,583 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in ESAB by 33.5% in the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,081,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,989,000 after buying an additional 271,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in ESAB by 8.6% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 749,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,706,000 after buying an additional 59,447 shares in the last quarter. 91.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.