AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Stock Rating Lowered by Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $240.00 target price on the aerospace company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the company. Alembic Global Advisors raised AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of AeroVironment in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Baird R W upgraded shares of AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AeroVironment currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $213.50.

AeroVironment Trading Down 6.1 %

Shares of AeroVironment stock opened at $204.25 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.26, a quick ratio of 3.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $192.69. AeroVironment has a 12-month low of $116.51 and a 12-month high of $236.60. The company has a market capitalization of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.89 and a beta of 0.49.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.28. AeroVironment had a net margin of 7.82% and a return on equity of 9.87%. The company had revenue of $189.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $183.18 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.00 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AeroVironment will post 3.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AeroVironment news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total transaction of $77,703.12. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,254 shares in the company, valued at $3,581,799.88. This represents a 2.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders 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

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVAV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 179,395 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in AeroVironment by 29.1% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,951,393 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $391,254,000 after acquiring an additional 439,717 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in AeroVironment by 19,950.0% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in AeroVironment by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 256,688 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $51,466,000 after acquiring an additional 9,921 shares during the period. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC lifted its stake in AeroVironment by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 217,666 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $43,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,207 shares in the last quarter. 86.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.