AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Trading Up 4.5% – Here’s Why

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV)’s stock price traded up 4.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $202.53 and last traded at $201.84. 71,260 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 340,084 shares. The stock had previously closed at $193.11.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AVAV. Jefferies Financial Group raised AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $240.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of 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 shares of AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of AeroVironment in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.83.

AeroVironment Trading Up 1.6 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $207.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 3.04 and a current ratio of 4.26. The firm has a market cap of $5.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.66 and a beta of 0.49.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $189.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $183.18 million. AeroVironment had a net margin of 7.82% and a return on equity of 9.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.00 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that AeroVironment, Inc. will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AeroVironment

In other news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 878 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.54, for a total transaction of $184,854.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,658,343.04. The trade was a 4.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,782 shares of company stock worth $372,615 in the last three months. 1.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVAV. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 39.6% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,451 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,494,000 after buying an additional 2,115 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AeroVironment by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 634,189 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $127,180,000 after purchasing an additional 4,948 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 149.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 57,245 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $11,477,000 after purchasing an additional 34,318 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its position in shares of AeroVironment by 85.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 4,395 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $881,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 155.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 321,479 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $64,457,000 after buying an additional 195,443 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.38% of the company’s stock.

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.