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

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders acquired 35,041 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 92% compared to the typical volume of 18,207 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Virgin Galactic

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Virgin Galactic by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,342,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,040,000 after purchasing an additional 496,373 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 727,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,335,000 after buying an additional 133,438 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 149.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 573,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 343,444 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 48.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 159,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $436,000 after acquiring an additional 52,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Virgin Galactic by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 133,462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $515,000 after acquiring an additional 44,508 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

Virgin Galactic Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SPCE opened at $2.71 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $198.18 million, a P/E ratio of -0.36 and a beta of 2.21. Virgin Galactic has a 52-week low of $2.18 and a 52-week high of $6.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 2.87 and a current ratio of 2.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $3.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.46.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($1.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.51) by $0.42. Virgin Galactic had a negative return on equity of 108.00% and a negative net margin of 17,615.71%.The firm had revenue of $0.37 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.32 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Virgin Galactic will post -16.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna set a $3.50 target price on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley set a $2.30 target price on shares of Virgin Galactic and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated a “peer perform” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Friday, November 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $4.20.

Virgin Galactic Company Profile

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.