New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Invests $1.50 Million in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 12,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,496,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ESAB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,546,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $665,200,000 after buying an additional 20,741 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in ESAB by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,202,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,176,000 after acquiring an additional 302,453 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in ESAB by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,196,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,512,000 after acquiring an additional 127,714 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in ESAB by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,692,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,028,000 after acquiring an additional 55,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in ESAB by 19.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,160,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,353,000 after purchasing an additional 190,583 shares during the period. 91.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ESAB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of ESAB from an “underperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on ESAB in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $160.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on ESAB from $131.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.14.

ESAB Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESAB opened at $115.92 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.36. ESAB Co. has a fifty-two week low of $88.54 and a fifty-two week high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.13. ESAB had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 17.43%. The company had revenue of $633.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $636.43 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. ESAB’s payout ratio is currently 7.41%.

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.