Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Trading 4.5% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) traded up 4.5% during trading on Tuesday after Noble Financial raised their price target on the stock from $38.00 to $44.00. Noble Financial currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions traded as high as $42.70 and last traded at $43.06. 602,191 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 1,768,751 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.21.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $33.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.78.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Phillip D. Carrai sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.16, for a total value of $252,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 276,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,639,743.60. The trade was a 2.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marie Mendoza sold 2,419 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.87, for a total transaction of $101,283.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,825,722.56. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 151,572 shares of company stock valued at $5,251,396 in the last three months. 2.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the first quarter worth $29,000. Aspect Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 1,900.0% during the 1st quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 202.3% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,046 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.92% of the company’s stock.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $36.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a current ratio of 2.84. The stock has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 324.33 and a beta of 0.99.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $302.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.68% and a return on equity of 3.85%. The company’s revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Company Profile

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc engages in the provision of mission critical products, services and solutions for United States national security priorities. It operates through the Kratos Government Solutions (KGS) and Unmanned Systems (US) segments. The KGS segment consists of an aggregation of KGS operating segments, including microwave electronic products, space, satellite and cyber, training solutions.