How much a stock’s price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you’d invested in Leidos (LDOS) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to LDOS for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Leidos’ Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let’s take a look at Leidos’ main business drivers.
Founded in 1969, Delaware-based Leidos Holdings, Inc. is a global science and technology leader that serves the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. Its core capabilities include providing solutions in the fields of cybersecurity; data analytics; enterprise IT modernization; operations and logistics; sensors, collection and phenomenology; software development; and systems engineering. Outside the United States, the company’s international customers include foreign governments and their agencies, primarily located in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Australia.
Leidos Holdings currently operates through three business segments namely — Defense Solutions, Civil and Health.
Defense Solutions: This business segment offers surveillance and reconnaissance, integrated systems solutions and global services for the U.S. Intelligence Community, military commands as well as other government and commercial customers. It provides multi-spectral, airborne, ground and maritime ISR collection as well as processing systems, advanced sensor design, command and control solutions, and training systems. In 2023, this division generated sales of $8,732 million, contributing 56.6% to total business sales.
Civil: This segment provides aviation solutions, security products, enterprise IT services, federal environment and infrastructure solutions as well as logistics. While aviation solutions provide systems integration for Air Navigation Service Providers, including the FAA and airport operators, security products include Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System, explosive detection systems as well as radiation detection systems. The unit realized sales of $3,664 million in 2023, accounting for 23.7% of total business sales.
Health: This unit offers affordable solutions to federal and commercial customers, which are responsible for the health and well-being of people worldwide comprising service members and veterans. Its primary capabilities include providing complex systems integration, managed health services, enterprise IT transformation and life sciences. Sales in this division totaled $3,042 million in 2023, representing 19.7% of the entire business sales.
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Leidos a decade ago, you’re probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in May 2014 would be worth $4,056.46, or a gain of 305.65%, as of May 21, 2024, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
The S&P 500 rose 183.43% and the price of gold increased 80.53% over the same time frame in comparison.
Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for LDOS.
Leidos Holdings ended first-quarter 2024 on a bright note, with both its earnings and sales surpassing the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. Its cost-effective defense solutions continue to witness increased contract wins from the Pentagon and other U.S. allies. These contract wins led to a solid backlog of $36.57 billion at the end of March 2024, thereby substantially bolstering its revenue growth prospects. The macroeconomic environment in the United States remains a major growth driver for Leidos Holdings. The company has also been growing inorganically through acquisitions. Leidos holds a solid solvency position. Leidos Holdings’ shares have outperformed its industry in the past year. However, the shortage of labor, especially skilled labor, in the aerospace and defense industry poses a threat to the stock.
The stock has jumped 18.58% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 6 higher, for fiscal 2024; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.