Dorsey Wright & Associates Sells 20,593 Shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Dorsey Wright & Associates decreased its stake in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 20,593 shares during the quarter. ESAB comprises approximately 1.1% of Dorsey Wright & Associates’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Dorsey Wright & Associates’ holdings in ESAB were worth $4,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in ESAB by 55.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 410 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of ESAB in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of ESAB by 12,140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 607 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in ESAB by 629.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 613 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in ESAB during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $77,000. Institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kevin J. Johnson sold 5,044 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $630,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,429,125. This represents a 30.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total transaction of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,418 shares of company stock valued at $8,431,773 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ESAB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $144.00 price objective (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ESAB has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.00.

ESAB Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ESAB opened at $128.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market cap of $7.76 billion, a PE ratio of 30.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $119.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.77. ESAB Co. has a 1-year low of $81.00 and a 1-year high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.13. ESAB had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 17.27%. The company had revenue of $673.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $620.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that ESAB Co. will post 4.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. ESAB’s payout ratio is presently 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.