Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 20,859 Shares of Mercury Systems Inc $MRCY

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Mercury Systems Inc (NASDAQ:MRCY) by 28.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 53,340 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 20,859 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Mercury Systems were worth $4,129,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MRCY. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Mercury Systems by 524.7% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 62,882 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,710,000 after acquiring an additional 52,816 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mercury Systems by 49.1% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 151,151 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,513,000 after buying an additional 49,767 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Mercury Systems by 16.1% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in shares of Mercury Systems by 100.7% in the 1st quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 121,220 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,223,000 after acquiring an additional 60,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming grew its position in Mercury Systems by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 15,721 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $677,000 after acquiring an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. 95.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on MRCY shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Mercury Systems in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Mercury Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. UBS Group set a $88.00 price target on shares of Mercury Systems in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on shares of Mercury Systems in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Mercury Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mercury Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.00.

Insider Activity at Mercury Systems

In other news, Director Jana Partners Management, Lp sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.45, for a total transaction of $75,450,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,966,675 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $374,735,628.75. This represents a 16.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Douglas Munro sold 1,329 shares of Mercury Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.42, for a total value of $97,575.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,077,658.76. This represents a 8.30% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,003,029 shares of company stock valued at $75,673,358. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Mercury Systems Stock Performance

Shares of MRCY stock opened at $74.22 on Friday. Mercury Systems Inc has a one year low of $39.42 and a one year high of $85.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of -130.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $72.89 and a 200-day moving average of $66.36.

Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 7th. The technology company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $256.86 million during the quarter. Mercury Systems had a positive return on equity of 1.14% and a negative net margin of 3.53%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mercury Systems Inc will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Mercury Systems Profile

Mercury Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: MRCY) is a technology company that designs, manufactures and markets secure processing subsystems for aerospace and defense applications. The company’s products are built to address the stringent security, safety and reliability requirements of mission-critical programs, with a focus on radar, electronic warfare, intelligence and other sensor and processing functions. Mercury’s offerings encompass rugged embedded computing modules, high-performance radio frequency (RF) and microwave components, digital signal processing subsystems and secure networking solutions.

Since its origins in advanced signal processing, Mercury Systems has expanded its capabilities through a combination of internal development and targeted acquisitions.