AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) Short Interest Up 7.0% in September

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,380,000 shares, an increase of 7.0% from the August 31st total of 1,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 367,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Insider Transactions at AeroVironment

In other news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total transaction of $77,703.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,254 shares in the company, valued at $3,581,799.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Wahid Nawabi sold 9,867 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.23, for a total value of $1,669,792.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,904,723.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total transaction of $77,703.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,581,799.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,776 shares of company stock worth $1,837,117. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AeroVironment

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Congress Asset Management Co. MA boosted its holdings in AeroVironment by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 322,445 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $40,641,000 after purchasing an additional 17,985 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 50.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 401 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of AeroVironment during the 1st quarter worth $854,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,094,831 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $474,376,000 after acquiring an additional 179,395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis purchased a new position in shares of AeroVironment during the 1st quarter worth $924,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Baird R W raised shares of AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Raymond James downgraded shares of AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $161.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AeroVironment presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.20.

AeroVironment Price Performance

Shares of AVAV opened at $211.09 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.09 and a beta of 0.50. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $184.28 and a 200 day moving average of $178.53. AeroVironment has a twelve month low of $104.67 and a twelve month high of $224.00.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $183.18 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AeroVironment will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.