Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $84.79 Million Stock Holdings in Leidos Holdings, Inc. $LDOS

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 545,204 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 36,471 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.43% of Leidos worth $84,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Longview Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Leidos in the first quarter valued at about $26,000. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Leidos by 77.6% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 151 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Leidos by 94.7% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 148 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Leidos in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Leidos by 110.5% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 160 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 76.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Leidos from $195.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Leidos in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Leidos in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Leidos from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Leidos from $140.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Leidos currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $163.80.

Leidos Stock Performance

Shares of LDOS stock opened at $108.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.40. Leidos Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $98.86 and a 52 week high of $205.77. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $116.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.55. The company has a market capitalization of $13.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.54.

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The aerospace company reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.25. Leidos had a net margin of 8.15% and a return on equity of 31.92%. The company had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Leidos has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.100-12.500 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Leidos Holdings, Inc. will post 12.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leidos Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Leidos’s dividend payout ratio is 15.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Leidos news, Director Gary Stephen May sold 1,484 shares of Leidos stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.75, for a total value of $197,001.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,686.75. This trade represents a 12.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Leidos Company Profile

Leidos is an American technology and engineering company that provides services and solutions to government and commercial customers, with a strong focus on national security, defense, intelligence, and civil government markets. The company delivers systems integration, engineering, cybersecurity, software development, data analytics, cloud migration and managed IT services, as well as mission support for complex programs. Leidos’ work spans areas such as C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), secure communications, sensors and systems engineering, and health IT solutions for public-sector healthcare programs.

Leidos traces its corporate roots to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and emerged as an independent, publicly traded company following a corporate separation in 2013.