William Blair Reiterates Outperform Rating for AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV)

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by William Blair in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,RTT News reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on AVAV. Jefferies Financial Group raised AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $240.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on AeroVironment from $220.00 to $146.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AeroVironment has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.40.

AeroVironment Price Performance

AeroVironment stock opened at $135.07 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.61, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $164.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.03. AeroVironment has a 12-month low of $110.07 and a 12-month high of $236.60. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.63 and a beta of 0.42.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.29). AeroVironment had a return on equity of 8.12% and a net margin of 6.39%. The firm had revenue of $188.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AeroVironment will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AeroVironment

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AVAV. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in AeroVironment by 299.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,821 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,037,000 after acquiring an additional 3,614 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 333,193 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $51,275,000 after purchasing an additional 32,663 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AeroVironment by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 136,652 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $21,029,000 after purchasing an additional 4,107 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in AeroVironment by 63.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 217,806 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $33,518,000 after buying an additional 84,170 shares during the period. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. purchased a new stake in AeroVironment during the 4th quarter worth approximately $333,000. 86.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AeroVironment

AeroVironment, Inc designs, develops, produces, delivers, and supports a portfolio of robotic systems and related services for government agencies and businesses in the United States and internationally. It operates through Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), Tactical Missile System (TMS), Medium Unmanned Aircraft Systems (MUAS), and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite Systems (HAPS) segments.