Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT): To Buy Or Not To Buy, That Is The Question

BlackRock Fund Advisors has recently announced that it has increased stake in Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) by 0.44%. After grabbing 13.74 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 60081.0 shares of the Industrials Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 5.38% having worth around $6.52 billion. Moreover, Fidelity Management & Research Co increased its share by 0.49 million to have a control over 6.14 million shares. And Charles Schwab Investment Managem raised its holdings to 0.38 million shares by acquiring 5.85 million shares or 2.29% of the stake.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) concluded trading on 03/15/23 at a closing price of $473.31, with 2.24 million shares of worth about $1.06 billion changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained positive as price took a surge of 15.63% during that period and on Wednesday the price saw a loss of about -1.16%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 256.80M shares, out of which, 253.80M shares are available for trading.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 33 times over the past 12 months. They bought 17,009 shares in 19 of the transactions. In 14 selling transactions, insiders dumped 14,908 shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and American Funds Income Fund of Ame are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Lockheed Martin Corporation Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is currently holding 7.86 million shares of worth totaling $3.73 billion. The company recently came buying 62903.0 shares which brought its stake up to 3.08% of the company’s outstanding shares. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 12807.0 shares, after which its hold over company’s outstanding shares expand to 2.05%, leaving 5.23 million shares with the mutual fund that have a worth of about $2.48 billion. American Funds Income Fund of Ame, after selling 4.32 million shares, have now control over 1.69% of the stake in the company. It holds 50000.0 shares of worth $2.05 billion.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) started trading at $475.00, below -$3.87 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 475.13, or with a loss of -1.16%. Stock saw a price change of -1.29% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of -1.80%. Year-to-date (YTD), LMT shares are showing a performance of -2.71% which increased to 6.49% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $373.67 but also hit the highest price of $498.95 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Lockheed Martin Corporation shares is 1.36 million. The stock is currently trading -0.95% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is up 1.04% for SMA50 and it goes to 6.10% higher than SMA200.

BlackRock Fund Advisors acquired 13.74 million shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation having value of about $6.52 billion. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by BlackRock Fund Advisors revealed that the firm now holds 60081.0 shares in the company valued at close to $28436938.11, or have control over 0.44% stake in the company. Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) currently have 256.80M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 76.30% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 35.18% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 42.35% and 0.45% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $120.93B and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 0.67. PE ratio of stock for trailing 12 months is 21.79, while it has posted earnings per share of $21.72 in the same period. Its PEG reads 2.28 and has Quick Ratio of 1.10 while making debt-to-equity ratio of 0.00. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for LMT, volatility over the week remained 1.77% while standing at 1.46% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $6.13 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $6.42 and it is $28.07 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target $5.86 which is $6.53 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $6.44 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to drop by -4.80% while it is estimated to increase by 4.47% in next year. EPS is likely to shrink at an annualized rate of 9.55% for next 5-years, compared to annual growth of 10.80% made by the stock over the past 5-years.

Analysts at 26 brokerage firms have issued recommendations for the Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT)’s stock and average of those rates the stock at a “Moderate Buy” and assign it a score of 2.60. Out of those 26 Wall Street analysts, 7 recommended a “Buy” rating, while 16 were in favor recommending the stock as a “Hold” and 2 analyst recommended the stock as “Sell”.

Digging deeper we find that several firms have released their research notes about the support levels of the stock. Most recent of them is a note released by Credit Suisse on February 07, 2023 offering an Outperform rating for the stock and assigned a target price range of between $427 and $510 to it. Coverage by DZ Bank stated Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) stock as a Buy in their note to investors on January 30, 2023, suggesting a price target of $523 for the stock. On January 13, 2023, Goldman Downgrade their recommendations, while on January 06, 2023, Vertical Research Downgrade their ratings for the stock with a price target of $491. Stock get an Equal-weight rating from Morgan Stanley on December 15, 2022.