Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Virgin Galactic Call Options (NYSE:SPCE)

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 82,593 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 85% compared to the average daily volume of 44,613 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SPCE. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Virgin Galactic from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Virgin Galactic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $3.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Diana S. Strandberg acquired 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $2.49 per share, for a total transaction of $49,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 70,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $176,615.70. The trade was a 39.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. SummitTX Capital L.P. bought a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Themes Management Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Pitcairn Co. bought a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

Virgin Galactic Trading Up 11.1%

Shares of Virgin Galactic stock opened at $4.58 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $461.01 million, a P/E ratio of -1.05 and a beta of 2.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $3.18 and a 200 day moving average of $3.07. Virgin Galactic has a fifty-two week low of $2.13 and a fifty-two week high of $8.90.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.81) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.86) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $0.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.20 million. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 19,781.30% and a negative return on equity of 103.89%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Virgin Galactic will post -2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Virgin Galactic

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.