Virgin Galactic Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:SPCE)

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 148,263 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 709% compared to the average daily volume of 18,331 call options.

Insider Transactions at Virgin Galactic

In other news, Director Diana S. Strandberg purchased 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $2.49 per share, for a total transaction of $49,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 70,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $176,615.70. The trade was a 39.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Virgin Galactic

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SPCE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 26.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,342,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,040,000 after acquiring an additional 496,373 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 149.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 573,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 343,444 shares during the period. 683 Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic in the 4th quarter valued at $899,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 118.9% in 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 during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 37,003.2% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 176,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $566,000 after acquiring an additional 175,765 shares during the period. 46.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SPCE. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Virgin Galactic from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $3.33.

Virgin Galactic Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:SPCE opened at $3.25 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $264.18 million, a PE ratio of -0.75 and a beta of 2.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Virgin Galactic has a twelve month low of $2.13 and a twelve month high of $5.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.98.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $0.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.20 million. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 19,781.30% and a negative return on equity of 103.89%. On average, equities analysts predict that Virgin Galactic will post -2.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.