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.
During the first quarter of 2024, Leidos Holdings completed a realignment of its segment and reporting structure. Consequently, the company currently operates through the following four business segments:
National Security and Digital: This business segment offers technology-enabled services and mission software capabilities in the areas of cyber, logistics, security operations and decision analytics, as well as IT operations and digital transformation programs. In 2024, this division generated revenues of $7,365 million, contributing 44.2% to Leidos’ total revenues.
Health & Civil: This segment provides services and solutions in the areas of public health, care coordination, life and environmental sciences and transportation. Its core capabilities include health information management services, managed health services, systems and infrastructure modernization, and life sciences research and development. The unit recorded revenues of $5,015 million in 2024, which accounted for 30.1% of Leidos’ total revenues.
Commercial & International: This unit’s products include IT modernization, software solutions, mission support and logistics, Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) technologies and services, cloud services, power grid engineering, energy modernization and security products and services. Revenues from this division totaled $2,252 million, representing 13.5% of Leidos’ total revenues.
Defense Systems: This unit develops and produces advanced space, aerial, surface, and sub-surface manned and unmanned defense systems. Revenues from this division totaled $2,030 million in 2024, representing 12.2% of Leidos’ total revenues.
Bottom Line
While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Leidos ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in January 2016 would be worth $3,539.56, or a gain of 253.96%, as of January 6, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
The S&P 500 rose 242.24% and the price of gold increased 290.52% over the same time frame in comparison.
Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for LDOS.
Leidos Holdings' defense solutions business continues to witness increased orders from the Pentagon and other U.S. allies. These contracts led to a solid backlog of $47.66 billion at the end of the third quarter, which should boost Leidos' revenue generation prospects. The solid financial position of the company has allowed it to enhance shareholder returns through dividend hikes. Our model expects the company's total revenues to increase during 2025-2027. The stock has outperformed its industry in the past year. Yet, the shortage of labor in the aerospace and defense industry poses a threat to Leidos. Persistent supply-chain constraints, owing to the shortage of critical materials, might affect Leidos. Higher import tariffs or any trade disputes may increase the cost of essential inputs used in Leidos' defense manufacturing.
The stock has jumped 5.32% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 4 higher, for fiscal 2025; the consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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