Investors Purchase Large Volume of AeroVironment Call Options (NASDAQ:AVAV)

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 1,973 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 83% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,081 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AVAV. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $161.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Raymond James lowered shares of AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of AeroVironment in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $211.83.

AeroVironment Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ AVAV opened at $163.33 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.34 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $208.20 and its 200 day moving average is $194.17. AeroVironment has a 52 week low of $116.51 and a 52 week high of $236.60. The company has a quick ratio of 3.04, a current ratio of 4.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.29). AeroVironment had a return on equity of 9.87% and a net margin of 7.82%. The business had revenue of $188.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.80 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that AeroVironment will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at AeroVironment

In related news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 508 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.65, for a total transaction of $110,058.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,654,452.20. This trade represents a 2.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 1,782 shares of company stock worth $373,609 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.27% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of AeroVironment by 132.7% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,511,676 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $275,367,000 after purchasing an additional 861,962 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 19,950.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 267,066 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $53,547,000 after acquiring an additional 265,734 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 155.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 321,479 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $64,457,000 after acquiring an additional 195,443 shares during the period. Heard Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter. Heard Capital LLC now owns 592,136 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $118,723,000 after acquiring an additional 120,447 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 180,824 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $36,255,000 after acquiring an additional 94,062 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.38% of the company’s stock.

About AeroVironment

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.