Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $4.53, but opened at $4.80. Virgin Galactic shares last traded at $5.1850, with a volume of 56,828,998 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on SPCE shares. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Virgin Galactic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Virgin Galactic presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $3.33.

Virgin Galactic Trading Up 22.7%

The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $559.78 million, a PE ratio of -1.27 and a beta of 2.18. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.99.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.81) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.86) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $0.23 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.20 million. Virgin Galactic had a negative return on equity of 103.89% and a negative net margin of 19,781.30%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. will post -2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Virgin Galactic

In related news, Director Diana S. Strandberg purchased 20,000 shares of Virgin Galactic stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $2.49 per share, for a total transaction of $49,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 70,930 shares in the company, valued at $176,615.70. The trade was a 39.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Virgin Galactic

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Virgin Galactic by 287.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 187,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 139,107 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Virgin Galactic by 1,077.1% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 21,094 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 19,302 shares during the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. purchased a new position in Virgin Galactic during the first quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Themes Management Co LLC purchased a new position in Virgin Galactic during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

Virgin Galactic Company Profile

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SPCE) is a commercial spaceflight company developing and operating spacecraft for private individuals and research customers. The firm’s primary business is suborbital human spaceflight, offering passengers a brief trip to the edge of space aboard its reusable spaceplane. In parallel, the company is building out infrastructure and support services for suborbital payload deployments and microgravity research missions.

The core flight system consists of a carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, which lifts the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo to high altitude before release.