Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) Upgraded by Bank of America to “Buy” Rating

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) was upgraded by research analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm presently has a $40.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 34.05% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on DRS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Leonardo DRS from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.83.

Leonardo DRS Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:DRS opened at $29.84 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.77, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.01. Leonardo DRS has a 12-month low of $19.88 and a 12-month high of $37.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ:DRS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $981.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $942.18 million. Leonardo DRS had a return on equity of 10.37% and a net margin of 6.59%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Leonardo DRS will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Leonardo DRS declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 20th that allows the company to repurchase $75.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 0.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Leonardo DRS

In other Leonardo DRS news, Director Eric Salzman sold 3,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.59, for a total transaction of $120,269.43. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,262 shares in the company, valued at $458,732.58. This represents a 20.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO William Lynn III sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.25, for a total value of $1,586,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 189,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,695,279.25. The trade was a 19.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 63,770 shares of company stock valued at $2,226,047 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Leonardo DRS by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,934,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,377,000 after purchasing an additional 263,002 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Leonardo DRS by 183.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,457,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,715,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236,661 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Leonardo DRS by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,915,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,061,000 after acquiring an additional 51,014 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Leonardo DRS by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,594,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,505,000 after acquiring an additional 278,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Leonardo DRS by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,432,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,274,000 after purchasing an additional 166,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 18.76% of the company’s stock.

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.