ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Stake Reduced by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. trimmed its stake in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 11.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 14,338 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,851 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in ESAB were worth $1,719,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ESAB by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,546,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $665,200,000 after purchasing an additional 20,741 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,202,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,176,000 after buying an additional 302,453 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,097,624 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,589,000 after buying an additional 318,018 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in ESAB by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,195,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,370,000 after buying an additional 34,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC increased its position in ESAB by 104.3% in the 4th quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 839,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,712,000 after acquiring an additional 428,770 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ESAB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on ESAB from $133.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of ESAB from $131.00 to $125.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Evercore ISI raised shares of ESAB from an “underperform” rating to an “inline” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $122.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of ESAB from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $123.00 to $147.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.75.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB opened at $115.28 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $120.25 and its 200-day moving average is $120.52. ESAB Co. has a 12-month low of $88.54 and a 12-month high of $135.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.37.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $633.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $636.43 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that ESAB Co. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is 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.