Champlain Investment Partners LLC Boosts Holdings in ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB)

Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of ESAB Co. (NYSE:ESAB) by 33.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,081,639 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 271,459 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in ESAB were worth $114,989,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in ESAB by 1.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 517,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,996,000 after buying an additional 8,235 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of ESAB by 12,140.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of ESAB during the third quarter worth about $1,817,000. Royce & Associates LP increased its position in shares of ESAB by 8.6% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 749,752 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,706,000 after purchasing an additional 59,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in ESAB by 20.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of ESAB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of ESAB from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on ESAB from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company 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 lifted their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $144.00 price objective (up from $138.00) on shares of ESAB in a report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.14.

ESAB Stock Performance

ESAB stock opened at $127.54 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.25. ESAB Co. has a twelve month low of $76.08 and a twelve month high of $135.97. The company has a market capitalization of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

ESAB (NYSE:ESAB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $620.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. ESAB’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that ESAB Co. will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

ESAB Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. ESAB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ESAB

In other ESAB news, CEO Shyam Kambeyanda sold 59,120 shares of ESAB stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.96, for a total transaction of $7,269,395.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,902 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,627,789.92. The trade was a 52.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rhonda L. Jordan sold 4,254 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.03, for a total value of $531,877.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,418 shares of company stock worth $8,431,773. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.