Federated Hermes Inc. Lowers Stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its position in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 80.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,688 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,943 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in ESAB were worth $537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of ESAB by 11.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,424,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $710,316,000 after purchasing an additional 653,377 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its stake in ESAB by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 811,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,422,000 after acquiring an additional 42,099 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 1,513 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 531,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,154,000 after acquiring an additional 27,202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of ESAB by 4.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 490,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,321,000 after purchasing an additional 21,025 shares in the last quarter. 91.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of ESAB from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on ESAB from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on ESAB from $107.00 to $102.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America boosted their target price on ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on ESAB in a report on Thursday, June 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.57.

ESAB Price Performance

Shares of ESAB stock opened at $105.74 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $99.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.53. ESAB Co. has a 52-week low of $61.43 and a 52-week high of $114.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.42.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $707.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.75 million. ESAB had a net margin of 9.06% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ESAB Co. will post 4.84 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. ESAB’s payout ratio is 8.38%.

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.