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Reasons to Add Leidos (LDOS) Stock to Your Portfolio Now

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Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS - Free Report) , with rising earnings estimates, robust ROE and a solid backlog, offers a great investment opportunity in the Zacks Aerospace sector.

Let’s focus on the reasons that make this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock an attractive investment pick at the moment.

Solid Growth Projections & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LDOS’ 2024 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 4.3% to $8.97 in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s total revenues for 2024 stands at $16.27 billion, which indicates growth of 5.4% from the 2023 reported figure.

The company’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 12.5%. It delivered an average earnings surprise of 23.49% in the last four quarters.

Return on Equity

Return on equity (ROE) indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing its funds to generate higher returns. Currently, LDOS’ ROE is 28.4% compared to its industry’s average of 11.53%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing its funds more constructively than its peers in the sector.

Solvency & Liquidity

Leidos’ times interest earned ratio (TIE) at the end of the second quarter of 2024 was 4.5. The TIE ratio of more than 1 indicates that the company will be able to meet its interest payment obligations in the near term without any problems.

LDOS’ current ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2024 was 1.21. The strong ratio of greater than 1 indicates the company’s ability to meet its future short-term liabilities without difficulties.

Rising Backlog

Contract wins from the Pentagon and other U.S allies for its cost-effective military technologies are one of Leidos Holdings' key sources of revenues. These contract wins help enhance the company's bookings and backlog.

At the end of June 2024, Leidos boasted a healthy backlog count of $36.49 billion, which indicates an improvement over the previous year's figure of $34.15 billion. Such strong backlog patterns boost the company's revenue generation prospects in the upcoming quarters.

Price Performance

In the past six months, LDOS shares have rallied 21.1% compared with the industry’s rise of 2.7%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same sector are Curtiss-Wright Corp. (CW - Free Report) , BAE Systems (BAESY - Free Report) and RTX Corporation (RTX - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Curtiss-Wright delivered an average earnings surprise of 11.52% in the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CW’s total revenues for 2024 stands at $3.04 billion, which indicates growth of 6.9% from the 2023 reported figure.

BAE Systems’ long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 12.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BAESY’s 2024 sales is pegged at $35.84 billion, which implies an improvement of 36.3% from the 2023 reported sales figure.  

RTX Corporation’s long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 10.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RTX’s 2024 sales is pegged at $79.37 billion, which calls for a rise of 6.7% from the 2023 reported sales figure.


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