ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Short Interest Update

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 902,100 shares, an increase of 13.5% from the May 31st total of 795,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 275,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

ESAB Stock Down 1.2 %

ESAB stock traded down $1.10 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $93.33. The company had a trading volume of 28,966 shares, compared to its average volume of 256,565. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $101.93 and its 200-day moving average is $97.53. ESAB has a fifty-two week low of $61.43 and a fifty-two week high of $114.77.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $690.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $653.93 million. ESAB had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that ESAB will post 4.91 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This is a positive change from ESAB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.34%. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio is 8.38%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 11.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,424,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $710,316,000 after buying an additional 653,377 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,578,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,724,000 after buying an additional 63,948 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 811,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,422,000 after buying an additional 42,099 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 562,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,723,000 after buying an additional 1,513 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ESAB by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 499,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,275,000 after buying an additional 9,658 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on ESAB shares. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of ESAB from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of ESAB in a report on Thursday, June 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of ESAB from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $111.00 to $125.00 in a report on Monday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.63.

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.