One of 147: A Single Tracked Holder Is the Entire Superinvestor Stake in Leidos. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share.

GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #161. Leidos is one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com, up 3.6% in a month when the broad index was flat. The June filings show exactly 1 tracked holder of 147, standing still through a quarter when the price fell 33.8%, and an insider record with no purchase in it.

The Hype

The attention is search traffic, not a single headline. Zacks reports that Leidos "has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately," with shares up 3.6% over the past month against no change in the Zacks S&P 500 composite, while its Computers - IT Services industry gained 8%. Zacks, October 22, 2026 The same note carries the tension in the name: the current-quarter consensus is $3.06 a share, up 0.3% year over year but revised down 2% in 30 days; the full-year estimate is $12.36, up 3.1%; and Zacks assigns the stock its Rank #4 (Sell) even as its Value Style Score is graded A. The last reported quarter printed revenue of $4.56 billion, up 7.2%, and EPS of $3.26 against $3.21 a year earlier, the fourth straight EPS beat. Our own price file, which ends October 2, shows why the searches may be anxious ones: the stock fell 33.8% in Q2 ($155.52 on March 31 to $102.97 on June 30), then recovered 14.3% to $117.74 at October 2 — still 41.0% below the 252-day high close of $199.55 on November 4, 2025, down 34.7% year to date and down 37.7% from the year-ago September 30 close.

The Tape

For Leidos, the one hundred and sixty-first Filing Tape audit, the tape shows 1 tracked manager — a single holder, flat through a collapsing quarter — a full market that added 14,607,906 shares while 115 filers left, an insider record with no purchase and 18 sales, no congressional trades at all, a 5% register topped by a 7.53% passive print, and a borrow of 4.17% that jumped 44.51% at the latest settlement.

Lens 1 — the superinvestors: one holder, and it barely moved. The collection holds 147 managers (144 at June 30; 3 early filers at September 30). The June 30, 2026 common-stock register is 1 distinct manager holding 247,849 shares worth $25,521,012, long only, with no option rows. That manager is Richard Pzena - Pzena Investment Management, 100.0% of the cohort, at a 0.07% weight, labelled DECREASED at −0.0% — the entire cohort is this one line. Its label verifies under both pairing methods: the holder held 247,937 shares at March 31 and 247,849 at June 30, a verified change of −0.0% (88 fewer shares), in a quarter when the price itself fell 33.8%. None of the three September early filers holds the name, and no tracked name exited — there was only ever the one. The holder's implied price is exactly $102.97, the June 30 close, so this lens carries no implied-price flag. At 0.25% of reported institutional shares the cohort is a sample, not the register — here, a sample of one. 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, published up to 45 days later.

Lens 2 — institutions: 115 fewer filers, 14.6 million more shares. At June 30, 2026, 770 institutions reported positions on the name's single common-stock CUSIP, down 115 from 885 at March 31 (−12.99%); 767 are long. Reported shares rose 17.2% to 99,552,114 (+14,607,906 shares), while reported value fell 15.92% to $9,989,369,773, labelled "reported" because the aggregate includes option rows (methodology). Flow counts agree (688 entered, 803 exited, net −115), and the single-CUSIP aggregate matches the by-ticker total on every field. The aggregate implies $100.34 against the $102.97 close (−2.55%). The quarter's price fell 33.8%, which is why value and shares point in opposite directions: the share count, which no price move can inflate, rose 17.2% on its own while the filing crowd thinned by 115 names. The tracked cohort did neither — its single holder stood still at −0.0%.

Lens 3 — insiders: no purchase, 18 sales. The parsed Form 4 record holds 177 filings, from January 3, 2025 through October 2, 2026, inside windows that run through October 2, 2026. The last 90 days (a filing-date window, per the aggregate's own definition) hold 11 filings, no open-market purchase, and 3 sale-coded rows across 11,000 shares worth $1,547,465.30, by 2 sellers, none of them officer rows. The last year holds no purchase either, against 9 sale-coded rows across 20,484 shares worth $3,181,790.96, by 3 sellers, 5 of them officer rows. The full parsed record holds no purchase at all: 0 purchase rows, against 18 sale-coded rows across 63,954 shares worth $10,727,633.47, 9 of them officer rows, by 7 sellers — 9 sale rows, in 94 filings dated before October 3, 2025, sit outside the last year's window. The claim is bounded by the record's span: within this record, which begins in January 2025, the purchase column is blank in every window.

Lens 4 — Congress: no recorded trades. This lens is empty, and the audit says so rather than skipping it. The combined aggregate (as of October 3, 2026), the House aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no row for this ticker, and the House member file (as of October 3, 2026; 2026 House PTR filings, transactions dated on or after April 1, 2026) lists no member with a position in it. There is nothing to total.

Lens 5 — the 5% register: a 7.53% passive maximum, no activist filing. Our full parse holds 3 SC 13D/G filings, all in the SC 13G family (1 SC 13G and 2 SC 13G/A amendments); there is no SC 13D. The 3 filings carry 3 reporter rows from 3 reporters. The register maximum — and the latest filing — is Vanguard Capital Management, 9,491,606 shares and 7.53%, as of March 31, 2026, filed April 30, 2026. BlackRock, Inc. prints 8,587,375 shares and 6.7% as of March 31, 2025. The Vanguard Group later prints 0 shares and 0.0% as of March 13, 2026, filed March 27, 2026. The prints are reported as printed, without attributing a reason (methodology).

Lens 6 — short interest: 4.17% of shares, up 53.1% in a year, and volatile. The latest FINRA settlement, September 15, 2026, records 5,236,432 shares sold short at 4.37 days to cover, 4.17% of the share count in our fundamentals file (a measured count, methodology). The borrow jumped 44.51% from the prior settlement, sits 9.4% below the June 30, 2026 settlement (5,780,627 shares) and is up 53.1% from the year-ago settlement (3,421,088 shares). The series maximum is 6,595,888 shares at February 28, 2022, and the latest reading sits 20.6% below it; the minimum is 774,664 shares at November 15, 2022. The summer's path: 5,780,627 (June 30), 6,413,623 (July 15), 5,200,289 (July 31), 4,197,413 (August 14), 3,623,584 (August 31), 5,236,432 (September 15) — a drawdown, then a sharp rebuild into mid-September.

The Gap

The search story is a cheap-looking, beaten-down name: a Value grade of A, four straight EPS beats, a stock down 37.7% in a year but up 3.6% in the last month — and a Rank #4 (Sell) attached to it. The June tape underneath is mostly absence and divergence. The tracked superinvestor lens is a single holder, Pzena at a 0.07% weight, whose verified position changed by 88 shares in a quarter when the price fell 33.8% — neither conviction buying nor exit, just stillness. The full market did accumulate shares (+17.2%, +14,607,906) but through a thinner crowd: 115 fewer filers, with reported value down 15.92% on the price collapse. Insiders contribute one direction only: no purchase anywhere in the parsed record, 18 sales, 3 of them in the last 90 days. Congress contributes nothing at all — no aggregate row, no member row. And the borrow, after draining all summer to 3,623,584 shares at August 31, rebuilt 44.51% in a single settlement to 5,236,432 — 4.17% of the share count and 53.1% above a year ago. One plausible reading is that the October search interest is a valuation argument happening in public, while the filing record shows institutions quietly adding shares into a collapse, the one tracked manager declining to move at all, and short sellers returning after the summer low.

What Would Change the Picture

Nothing above is a recommendation. These filings would change it:

• 1. The 2026Q3 13F season (filing window closing mid-November 2026). The baseline is 1 June common-stock holder with 247,849 shares, the continuing holder verified at −0.0%, and zero September early filers holding the name. Whether Pzena adds, cuts or exits, and whether any second tracked holder appears, would change this lens.
• 2. A first insider open-market purchase — the first in the parsed record. The record through the October 2 window end holds 0 purchases against 18 sale-coded rows. A single purchase filed after that date would break a pattern that currently has no exception in the record.
• 3. A first congressional trade in any file. The combined, House and Senate aggregates and the House member file all carry no row for this name. Any recorded purchase or sale, by any member, would change this lens.
• 4. A first SC 13D, or a 13G print above 7.53%. The register holds no activist filing at all; its maximum is the passive 7.53% print dated March 31, 2026. A 13D from any reporter, or a passive print above 7.53%, would change this lens.
• 5. Short interest above 6,413,623 shares, or a new series maximum. Above the July 15, 2026 reading — the highest of the last six settlements — would extend the September rebuild; above 6,595,888 shares would set a new series high. A fall back below 3,623,584 would resume the summer drain instead.

Methodology and data notes

• As-of & limits: The lenses rest on different clocks, none live: 13F is a June 30, 2026 snapshot published up to 45 days later; Form 4 windows run through October 2, 2026 (the last Leidos filing in the parsed record is itself dated October 2, 2026); Congress aggregates run through October 3, 2026 (Senate through October 1, 2026); 13D/G through April 30, 2026; short interest through September 15, 2026; the price file ends October 2, 2026. Nine limits are specific to this audit. First, the roster expanded before the recent audits — from 85 managers (83 filing) to 149 (147 filing) — so "of 147" counts are not comparable to earlier pieces' "of 83" figures. Second, this name's common stock carries a single CUSIP (525327102), and the full-market by-CUSIP row matches the by-ticker aggregate on every field — holders, long holders, shares, reported value, prior holders and prior reported value — so no CUSIP blending question arises. Third, the tracked register's change label is verified, not taken on trust: the single continuing holder was verified by two methods that agree exactly — a total-value prefix pass and accession identity plus CUSIP-overlap pairing, its June filing paired to a unique March filing, with the label recomputing exactly and no fallback lookup needed. The registers then reconcile with no remainder: the March 31 register holds 247,937 shares, equal to the verified continuing holder's 247,937, with no exits and no early-filer rows on either side; the June 30 register holds 247,849 shares, equal to the June cohort's 247,849. Fourth, the sole June holder's implied price equals the close exactly ($102.97 against the June 30 close of $102.97), so this lens carries no implied-price flag; the cohort aggregate implies the same $102.97. Fifth, the full-market aggregate implies $100.34 against the June 30 close of $102.97 (−2.55%): the aggregate is a reported sum that includes option rows, so its implied price need not equal the close; this audit uses filer counts and share counts as this lens's primary measures and reports the value as reported only. Sixth, the insider lens rests on a single aggregate bucket — this issuer's filings sit under one symbol spelling, "LDOS", with no case split — cross-checked against a row-level scan of all 177 parsed filings for the issuer (CIK 1336920): filing counts, transaction counts, share counts, officer-row counts and values reproduce exactly in every window, with a value difference of $0.00 in all three windows and no accession appearing under more than one symbol spelling. On that record, every insider implied-price check that applies passes: the 90-day implied sale price of $140.68 sits inside its filing-window close range ($104.92–$146.31), and the one-year and full-record figures likewise sit inside their ranges; no window holds any purchase rows, so no implied-price check applies on the buy side. The site's insider aggregate (dated October 22, 2026, a 90-day window ending that day) carries a row for this name — 0 purchases, 3 sale rows, $1,547,465.30, 2 sellers — which matches the full parse's 90-day filing-date window exactly on every field. Seventh, the congressional lens is absent in every file this audit reads — combined, House and Senate aggregates and the House member file — and is reported as absent; no figure is estimated for it. Eighth, the 5% register's cross-date share total of 18,078,981 is an arithmetic sum of 3 single-reporter rows across different reporters and as-of dates, including one reporter's own 0-share print, and is not a current combined stake; each print is reported individually in the text. Parsed totals match the aggregates exactly. Ninth, the short-interest series holds one step of 2x or more — at February 28, 2022, from 2,931,097 to 6,595,888 shares (2.25x), which is also the series maximum — and no step to one-half or less (the smallest step is 0.539x, at June 14, 2024), so the series carries one discontinuity on this measure, at its maximum, and is otherwise continuous across its span. No row carries a split flag; one row carries a FINRA revision flag (June 15, 2021). The issuer-name field reads "Leidos Holdings, Inc." at all 137 settlements, on a single market class (NYSE) throughout. The share count behind the short-interest percentage is 125,492,209 shares in our fundamentals file, a measured period-end count (dei/EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding, as of July 28, 2026), so the 4.17% figure rests on a measured denominator. Our price file records no single-day close move across the thresholds this audit normally treats as split patterns, and records no split factor for this name. The company's fundamentals as collected print fiscal 2026 revenue of $17,174,000,000, net income of $1,448,000,000 and assets of $13,493,000,000; those figures are reported as collected and are not used in any lens above. Every price statement from our own file is mechanical, a date and a close. The Zacks figures in The Hype — the search ranking, the past-month return and the consensus estimates — are that outlet's published figures, cited as such, not blended into file-based calculations.
• Market context sources: Zacks, October 22, 2026 (Leidos among the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com; past-month return +3.6% against no change in the Zacks S&P 500 composite; Computers - IT Services industry +8%; current-quarter consensus EPS $3.06, up 0.3% year over year, revised −2% over 30 days; fiscal-year consensus $12.36, up 3.1%; next fiscal year $12.11, down 2.0%; Zacks Rank #4 (Sell); Value Style Score A; last reported quarter revenue $4.56 billion, up 7.2%, EPS $3.26 against $3.21 a year earlier, with EPS beats in each of the trailing four quarters). Google Trends US daily snapshot via Cyber Kendra, updated October 22, 2026 (top queries are sports and entertainment names; no stock query appears, so the Zacks trending-stock selection above is the fallback basis). Figures we could not confirm were left out; the external items above are reported figures from those outlets, not GetCoattail measurements.
• Leidos is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: Leidos (LDOS) stock page. Series data: ldos_lens_data.csv · ldos_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: Newmont · Union Pacific.

Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.

This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.

Revision history: v1.0 — October 22, 2026: first publication.