Virgin Galactic Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:SPCE)

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 23,823 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 63% compared to the average volume of 14,651 call options.

Institutional Trading of Virgin Galactic

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SPCE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 29.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,165,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,298,000 after acquiring an additional 6,823,646 shares in the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new position in Virgin Galactic in the third quarter worth about $703,000. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in Virgin Galactic in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Virgin Galactic by 11.7% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 272,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 28,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in Virgin Galactic by 92.3% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 761,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,371,000 after purchasing an additional 365,657 shares in the last quarter. 46.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Virgin Galactic Stock Down 5.5 %

NYSE SPCE opened at $0.87 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.03, a current ratio of 5.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a fifty day moving average of $1.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $347.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.55 and a beta of 1.60. Virgin Galactic has a 52 week low of $0.70 and a 52 week high of $6.17.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.25) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 million. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 7,387.31% and a negative return on equity of 102.01%. On average, analysts predict that Virgin Galactic will post -0.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on SPCE. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Virgin Galactic from $3.00 to $2.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Virgin Galactic from $1.75 to $1.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $2.30.

About Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc, an aerospace and space travel company, focuses on the development, manufacture, and operation of spaceships and related technologies. The company engages in the design and development, manufacturing, ground and flight testing, spaceflight operation, and post-flight maintenance of spaceflight systems for private individuals, researchers, and government agencies.