ESAB Co. (ESAB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 on January 17th

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

ESAB has a dividend payout ratio of 5.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect ESAB to earn $5.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.9%.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB stock traded down $1.76 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $122.12. The stock had a trading volume of 442,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,970. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $123.26 and its 200 day moving average is $107.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a PE ratio of 28.60, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.34. ESAB has a twelve month low of $82.44 and a twelve month 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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.50 million. ESAB had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 17.27%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that ESAB will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ESAB shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on ESAB in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI cut shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 target price (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.43.

Insider Activity at ESAB

In other news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total value of $7,269,395.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,902 shares in the company, valued at $6,627,789.92. This trade represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. 7.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ESAB Company Profile

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.