AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) Short Interest Update

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) saw a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,290,000 shares, a decline of 5.1% from the October 31st total of 1,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 363,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days.

AeroVironment Stock Down 5.0 %

AVAV opened at $193.10 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.66 and a beta of 0.45. AeroVironment has a 12 month low of $116.51 and a 12 month high of $236.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 4.26 and a quick ratio of 3.04. The business has a 50-day moving average of $208.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.36.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.28. The firm 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%. AeroVironment’s revenue was up 24.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that AeroVironment will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AeroVironment news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of AeroVironment stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.73, for a total transaction of $78,697.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,273,480.56. The trade was a 2.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,782 shares of company stock worth $373,609. 1.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AeroVironment

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AVAV. Comerica Bank raised its holdings in shares of AeroVironment by 53.9% in the 1st 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. TD Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in AeroVironment during the second quarter valued at approximately $565,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AeroVironment by 120.6% during the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 136,603 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $24,884,000 after buying an additional 74,672 shares during the period. Nicholas Investment Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of AeroVironment in the second quarter worth $3,679,000. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of AeroVironment in the 2nd quarter valued at $218,000. 86.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AVAV shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $240.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Baird R W upgraded AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Raymond James lowered AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $161.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. One equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AeroVironment presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $211.83.

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.