ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Announces $0.08 Quarterly Dividend

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st.

ESAB has a dividend payout ratio of 5.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect ESAB to earn $5.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.9%.

ESAB Price Performance

ESAB stock opened at $121.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.49. The stock has a market cap of $7.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.34. ESAB has a 12-month low of $82.44 and a 12-month high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.27% and a net margin of 9.47%. The business had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $620.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that ESAB will post 4.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ESAB. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a report 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 company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on ESAB in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $144.00 target price (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total value of $531,877.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $6,627,789.92. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. Company insiders own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

About ESAB

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.