AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Upgraded at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has $230.00 price objective on the aerospace company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $240.00.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Raymond James cut AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of AeroVironment in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Robert W. Baird raised AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $161.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AeroVironment has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.83.

AeroVironment Stock Up 0.8 %

AVAV opened at $195.91 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a PE ratio of 91.98 and a beta of 0.49. AeroVironment has a twelve month low of $116.51 and a twelve month high of $236.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $207.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $193.97. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $189.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $183.18 million. AeroVironment had a return on equity of 9.87% and a net margin of 7.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that AeroVironment will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AeroVironment

In other AeroVironment news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 508 shares of AeroVironment 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 directly owns 16,868 shares in the company, valued at $3,654,452.20. This trade represents a 2.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 1,782 shares of company stock worth $372,615 over the last quarter. 1.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVAV. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of AeroVironment during the first quarter worth $854,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AeroVironment by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,094,831 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $474,376,000 after acquiring an additional 179,395 shares during the period. Natixis acquired a new position in AeroVironment in the 1st quarter valued at about $924,000. Comerica Bank increased its stake in AeroVironment by 53.9% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 18,991 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,911,000 after purchasing an additional 6,648 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of AeroVironment by 37.1% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,636 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 3,958 shares in the last quarter. 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.