Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Price Target Raised to $50.00

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) had its price objective upped by Royal Bank Of Canada from $38.00 to $50.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the aerospace company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on KTOS. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Noble Financial upped their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.82.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Performance

NASDAQ KTOS opened at $44.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $6.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 343.14 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.93. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a twelve month low of $17.91 and a twelve month high of $47.09. The company has a quick ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 2.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $302.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.68% and a return on equity of 3.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Phillip D. Carrai sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.99, for a total value of $197,940.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 288,048 shares in the company, valued at $9,502,703.52. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Eric M. Demarco acquired 7,455 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $33.59 per share, for a total transaction of $250,413.45. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,396,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,899,600.83. This trade represents a 0.54% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 149,572 shares of company stock valued at $5,373,706 over the last three months. 2.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of KTOS. Rovida Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,789,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,728,179 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the first quarter valued at approximately $41,118,000. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 129.2% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,163,223 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $64,226,000 after buying an additional 1,219,585 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter worth $28,944,000. 75.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.