ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Short Interest Down 7.0% in July

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 852,200 shares, a decrease of 7.0% from the July 15th total of 916,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 276,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on ESAB shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on ESAB in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI cut their target price on ESAB from $107.00 to $102.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of ESAB from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of ESAB from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ESAB currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $108.57.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB opened at $100.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a PE ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $96.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.30. ESAB has a 52-week low of $61.43 and a 52-week high of $114.77.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $707.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.75 million. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 8.39%. The company’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ESAB will post 4.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ESAB

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of ESAB by 302.6% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 314 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of ESAB in the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 57.9% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 420 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ESAB in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in ESAB in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.