Stock Repurchase Plan Announced by Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS)

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $75.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 0.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on DRS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Leonardo DRS from $30.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Leonardo DRS presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.17.

Leonardo DRS Stock Down 7.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ DRS opened at $28.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $7.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.99, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.01. Leonardo DRS has a 12 month low of $19.88 and a 12 month high of $37.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $33.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.51.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $981.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $942.18 million. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 9.71% and a net margin of 6.23%. As a group, analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total value of $120,269.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $458,732.58. This represents a 20.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Pamela Morrow sold 11,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.81, for a total value of $386,391.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $437,387.65. This represents a 46.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 150,089 shares of company stock valued at $5,178,619 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Leonardo DRS

Leonardo DRS, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides defense electronic products and systems, and military support services. It operates through Advanced Sensing and Computing (ASC) segment, and Integrated Mission Systems (IMS) segments. The ASC segment designs, develops, and manufacture sensing and network computing technology that enables real-time situational awareness required for enhanced operational decision making and execution; and offers sensing capabilities span applications, such as missions requiring advanced detection, precision targeting and surveillance sensing, long range electro-optic/infrared, signals intelligence, and other intelligence systems including electronic warfare, ground vehicle sensing, active electronically scanned array tactical radars, dismounted soldier, and space sensing.