Wall Street Zen Upgrades Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) to Hold

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Monday, April 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $3.33.

Virgin Galactic Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE SPCE opened at $2.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $2.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.02. Virgin Galactic has a fifty-two week low of $2.13 and a fifty-two week high of $6.64. The company has a market cap of $228.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.65 and a beta of 2.18.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.81) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.86) by $0.05. Virgin Galactic had a negative return on equity of 103.89% and a negative net margin of 19,781.30%.The firm had revenue of $0.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.20 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Virgin Galactic will post -3.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Virgin Galactic by 26.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,342,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,040,000 after purchasing an additional 496,373 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Virgin Galactic by 22.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 727,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,335,000 after purchasing an additional 133,438 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Virgin Galactic by 149.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 573,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 343,444 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Virgin Galactic by 118.9% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 479,789 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after acquiring an additional 260,594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Virgin Galactic by 40.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 406,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,306,000 after acquiring an additional 117,136 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

About Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SPCE) is a commercial spaceflight company developing and operating spacecraft for private individuals and research customers. The firm’s primary business is suborbital human spaceflight, offering passengers a brief trip to the edge of space aboard its reusable spaceplane. In parallel, the company is building out infrastructure and support services for suborbital payload deployments and microgravity research missions.

The core flight system consists of a carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, which lifts the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo to high altitude before release.