AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Rating Increased to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a $230.00 price target on the aerospace company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $240.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 18.02% from the stock’s current price.

AVAV has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Alembic Global Advisors raised AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Baird R W upgraded AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of AeroVironment in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AeroVironment has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $211.83.

AeroVironment Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of AVAV opened at $194.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 3.04 and a current ratio of 4.26. AeroVironment has a one year low of $116.51 and a one year high of $236.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $206.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $193.83. The company has a market capitalization of $5.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.50 and a beta of 0.49.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $189.48 million during 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 company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that AeroVironment will post 3.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 17,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,658,343.04. The trade was a 4.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in AeroVironment by 0.8% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of AeroVironment by 149.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 57,245 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $11,477,000 after buying an additional 34,318 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in shares of AeroVironment by 85.0% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 4,395 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $881,000 after buying an additional 2,019 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in AeroVironment by 155.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 321,479 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $64,457,000 after buying an additional 195,443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Washington Harbour Partners LP increased its position in AeroVironment by 71.0% in the 3rd quarter. Washington Harbour Partners LP now owns 21,200 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $4,251,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.38% of the company’s stock.

AeroVironment Company Profile

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.