ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Short Interest Update

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) saw a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 697,800 shares, a growth of 13.2% from the December 15th total of 616,500 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 281,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

ESAB Price Performance

NYSE ESAB traded down $0.07 on Friday, hitting $123.99. The company had a trading volume of 207,833 shares, compared to its average volume of 231,362. The company has a market capitalization of $7.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $124.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $110.90. 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 has a 12-month low of $83.21 and a 12-month high of $135.97.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $673.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $620.50 million. ESAB had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 17.27%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that ESAB will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ESAB

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESAB. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in ESAB by 73.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in ESAB by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 71,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,771,000 after purchasing an additional 5,771 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in ESAB by 29.4% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 137,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,999,000 after purchasing an additional 31,260 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 3,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $362,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 194.0% during the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 6,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $610,000 after acquiring an additional 4,260 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ESAB shares. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 price target (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of ESAB in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ESAB currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.43.

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.