Astronics (NASDAQ:ATRO) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Astronics (NASDAQ:ATRO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

ATRO has been the topic of several other reports. Cowen assumed coverage on Astronics in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Astronics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Astronics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Astronics in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. Finally, Craig Hallum began coverage on shares of Astronics in a research note on Friday, October 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

Astronics Stock Performance

Shares of ATRO stock opened at $54.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 2.87. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -604.38 and a beta of 1.12. Astronics has a 52 week low of $15.41 and a 52 week high of $55.65. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.71.

Astronics (NASDAQ:ATRO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $211.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $210.80 million. Astronics had a negative net margin of 0.37% and a positive return on equity of 29.65%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Astronics will post 0.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Astronics by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,601,632 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $38,711,000 after buying an additional 27,025 shares during the last quarter. PDT Partners LLC grew its position in Astronics by 39.6% during the first quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 88,785 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,146,000 after acquiring an additional 25,203 shares during the last quarter. Cove Street Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Astronics during the first quarter worth approximately $400,000. Longboard Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Astronics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $222,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Astronics by 22.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 50,851 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 9,218 shares in the last quarter. 56.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Astronics

Astronics Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs and manufactures products for the aerospace, defense, and electronics industries in the United States, rest of North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Test Systems. The Aerospace segment offers lighting and safety systems, electrical power generation systems, distribution and seat motions systems, aircraft structures, avionics products, system certification, and other products.