Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $36.75.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KTOS. JMP Securities reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $27.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Benchmark increased their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 10th.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Price Performance

Shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions stock opened at $35.13 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 351.34 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a current ratio of 3.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $32.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.78. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a one year low of $17.91 and a one year high of $36.85.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $302.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a return on equity of 3.68% and a net margin of 1.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Stacey G. Rock sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.91, for a total transaction of $135,640.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 53,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,824,764.92. This trade represents a 6.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Steven S. Fendley sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.59, for a total transaction of $172,130.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 370,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,114,529.40. This represents a 1.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 128,817 shares of company stock worth $4,007,207 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.37% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KTOS. Rovida Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,789,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 11.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,447,687 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $488,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,728,179 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the first quarter valued at approximately $41,118,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,944,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 75.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,402,444 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $71,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,223 shares in the last quarter. 75.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

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.