Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) Sees Large Volume Increase Following Analyst Upgrade

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) saw strong trading volume on Thursday after Jefferies Financial Group upgraded the stock to a strong-buy rating. 16,027,314 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 10% from the previous session’s volume of 14,530,700 shares.The stock last traded at $5.53 and had previously closed at $4.71.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on SPCE. Wall Street Zen raised Virgin Galactic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Susquehanna raised their price target 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Virgin Galactic from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Virgin Galactic news, Director Diana S. Strandberg purchased 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $2.49 per share, for a total transaction of $49,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 70,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $176,615.70. This trade represents a 39.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Virgin Galactic by 284.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 90,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,000 after buying an additional 67,303 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in Virgin Galactic by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 40,487 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 7,282 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 77.8% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 16,369 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 44.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 6,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Virgin Galactic during the second quarter worth $195,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

Virgin Galactic Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $563.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.26 and a beta of 2.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $3.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.08.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts expect that Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. will post -2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.