Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,367,943 shares, a drop of 14.6% from the March 15th total of 2,772,317 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,733,675 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Lockheed Martin

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,638,936 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $4,178,399,000 after purchasing an additional 114,900 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,728,551 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,770,729,000 after purchasing an additional 527,523 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 3.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,384,753 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,190,493,000 after purchasing an additional 79,491 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 4.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,196,058 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,096,294,000 after purchasing an additional 87,663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,670,284 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $807,866,000 after purchasing an additional 10,349 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LMT. Citigroup increased their price target on Lockheed Martin from $673.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Lockheed Martin from $492.00 to $611.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. DZ Bank lowered Lockheed Martin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $665.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on Lockheed Martin from $740.00 to $770.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Lockheed Martin from $725.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lockheed Martin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $645.79.

Lockheed Martin Price Performance

Shares of LMT traded down $15.93 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $591.57. 1,696,487 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,737,776. The company has a market capitalization of $136.33 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $637.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $550.59. Lockheed Martin has a one year low of $410.11 and a one year high of $692.00.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The aerospace company reported $5.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $6.33 by ($0.53). The company had revenue of $20.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.84 billion. Lockheed Martin had a return on equity of 108.53% and a net margin of 6.69%.The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $7.67 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lockheed Martin will post 27.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Lockheed Martin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd were issued a $3.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $13.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Lockheed Martin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.22%.

About Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) is a global aerospace and defense company that designs, develops and manufactures advanced technology systems for government and commercial customers. Formed through the 1995 merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta, the company is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and focuses on providing integrated solutions across air, space, land and sea domains. Its primary customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and allied governments around the world.

Lockheed Martin’s product and service portfolio spans military aircraft, missile and fire-control systems, missile defense, space systems and satellite technologies, sensors and precision weapons.