Manchester Capital Management LLC Purchases New Holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Manchester Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ESAB. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of ESAB by 6,624.8% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 379,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,836,000 after purchasing an additional 373,441 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in ESAB in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,502,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ESAB by 1.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,578,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,724,000 after buying an additional 63,948 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ESAB by 527.5% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 69,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,864,000 after acquiring an additional 58,230 shares during the period. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of ESAB by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 811,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,422,000 after acquiring an additional 42,099 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on ESAB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of ESAB from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $111.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of ESAB in a report on Thursday, June 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.63.

ESAB Stock Performance

Shares of ESAB traded up $1.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $96.92. 10,874 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 254,321. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. ESAB Co. has a 52 week low of $61.43 and a 52 week high of $114.77. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.80. The firm has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.43.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $690.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $653.93 million. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 8.39%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.04 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that ESAB Co. will post 4.91 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. This is an increase from ESAB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.38%.

ESAB 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.