Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) Board of Directors Approves Stock Buyback Program

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Leonardo DRS from $30.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Leonardo DRS presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.00.

Leonardo DRS Stock Performance

Shares of DRS stock traded up $1.61 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $31.15. The stock had a trading volume of 1,345,754 shares, compared to its average volume of 635,747. Leonardo DRS has a twelve month low of $19.88 and a twelve month high of $37.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $33.67 and its 200 day moving average is $31.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a PE ratio of 42.09, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.01.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last released its quarterly 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. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 9.71% and a net margin of 6.23%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Leonardo DRS will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.16%.

Insider Transactions at Leonardo DRS

In other Leonardo DRS news, CEO William Lynn III sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.07, for a total value of $1,533,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 234,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,004,303.59. This represents a 16.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Dippold sold 25,880 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.08, for a total value of $881,990.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 47,028 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,602,714.24. The trade was a 35.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 150,089 shares of company stock worth $5,178,619 over the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by 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.