Primecap Management Co. CA Has $709,000 Position in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Primecap Management Co. CA lessened its stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 44.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,667 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,300 shares during the quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in ESAB were worth $709,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESAB. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of ESAB by 5,764.3% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 4,035 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in ESAB in the first quarter valued at about $378,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in ESAB by 11.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,424,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $710,316,000 after purchasing an additional 653,377 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of ESAB by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 33,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,720,000 after purchasing an additional 5,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ESAB during the 1st quarter valued at about $6,174,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at ESAB

In other news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total transaction of $7,269,395.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,902 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,627,789.92. This trade represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total value of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773 in the last ninety days. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ESAB. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 price target (up previously from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $124.14.

ESAB Stock Up 1.7 %

ESAB stock opened at $127.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50-day moving average of $113.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $104.25. ESAB Co. has a 52-week low of $76.08 and a 52-week high of $135.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.50 million. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.27% and a net margin of 9.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.49%.

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.