AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $230.00 target price on the aerospace company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $240.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 18.40% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on AVAV. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of AeroVironment in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Baird R W raised AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Raymond James lowered AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AeroVironment has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.83.

AeroVironment Stock Down 2.1 %

AVAV stock opened at $194.26 on Wednesday. AeroVironment has a twelve month low of $116.51 and a twelve month high of $236.60. The company has a market cap of $5.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.20 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a quick ratio of 3.04, a current ratio of 4.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $207.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $193.86.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.28. AeroVironment had a net margin of 7.82% and a return on equity of 9.87%. The company had revenue of $189.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $183.18 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. AeroVironment’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that AeroVironment will post 3.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AeroVironment news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of AeroVironment stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total value of $77,703.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,581,799.88. The trade was a 2.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,782 shares of company stock worth $372,615. 1.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new position in AeroVironment during the first quarter worth $854,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in AeroVironment by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,094,831 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $474,376,000 after acquiring an additional 179,395 shares in the last quarter. Natixis acquired a new position in AeroVironment during the 1st quarter valued at about $924,000. Comerica Bank boosted its stake in AeroVironment by 53.9% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 18,991 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,911,000 after purchasing an additional 6,648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in AeroVironment by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,636 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 3,958 shares in the last quarter. 86.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AeroVironment Company Profile

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.