ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,010,000 shares, an increase of 6.0% from the October 15th total of 952,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 241,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

ESAB Price Performance

ESAB stock traded down $1.16 on Tuesday, reaching $121.20. The company had a trading volume of 298,698 shares, compared to its average volume of 253,179. ESAB has a 1 year low of $76.08 and a 1 year high of $135.97. The company has a market cap of $7.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s fifty day moving average is $111.78 and its 200 day moving average is $103.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.92.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.13. ESAB had a return on equity of 17.27% and a net margin of 9.47%. The company had revenue of $673.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. ESAB’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that ESAB will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.49%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ESAB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI lowered ESAB from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $102.00 to $122.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on ESAB from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.14.

Insider Transactions at ESAB

In related news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total value of $7,269,395.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,902 shares in the company, valued at $6,627,789.92. This represents a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 transaction of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. Company insiders own 7.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ESAB

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ESAB. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of ESAB by 11.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,424,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $710,316,000 after purchasing an additional 653,377 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of ESAB by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 432,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,827,000 after purchasing an additional 29,453 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its holdings in shares of ESAB by 44.3% during the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 64,239 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,066,000 after purchasing an additional 19,721 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in ESAB by 40.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 31,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,536,000 after purchasing an additional 9,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in ESAB during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,811,000. 91.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.