Wall Street Zen Downgrades Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) to Sell

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

RKLB has been the topic of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Rocket Lab in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Baird R W upgraded shares of Rocket Lab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Rocket Lab in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Rocket Lab in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Rocket Lab from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.17.

Rocket Lab Stock Down 3.2%

Shares of NASDAQ RKLB opened at $61.49 on Friday. Rocket Lab has a 12-month low of $14.71 and a 12-month high of $73.97. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.85 billion, a PE ratio of -161.82 and a beta of 2.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.18, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The rocket manufacturer reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.02. Rocket Lab had a negative return on equity of 27.26% and a negative net margin of 35.64%.The firm had revenue of $155.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $152.45 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.10) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 48.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Rocket Lab will post -0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Peter Beck sold 18,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.65, for a total value of $766,537.05. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 902,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,704,592.30. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Frank Klein sold 4,736 shares of Rocket Lab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.08, for a total value of $199,290.88. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,269,487 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,420,012.96. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,519,974 shares of company stock valued at $217,349,226. 11.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rocket Lab

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in Rocket Lab by 176.1% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 12,125,910 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $580,952,000 after acquiring an additional 7,734,788 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Rocket Lab during the second quarter worth $192,918,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Rocket Lab during the second quarter worth $164,751,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Rocket Lab by 67.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,242,304 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $223,287,000 after purchasing an additional 2,504,054 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 5.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,809,723 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,003,104,000 after purchasing an additional 2,127,565 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.78% of the company’s stock.

About Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab USA, Inc, a space company, provides launch services and space systems solutions for the space and defense industries. The company provides launch services, spacecraft design services, spacecraft components, spacecraft manufacturing, and other spacecraft and on-orbit management solutions; and constellation management services, as well as designs and manufactures small and medium-class rockets.