Golden State Equity Partners Takes Position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS)

Golden State Equity Partners purchased a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 11,940 shares of the aerospace company's stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 202.3% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,046 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 90.5% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,284 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. MRP Capital Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC now owns 2,250 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 370.0% in the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 2,585 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the last quarter. 75.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on KTOS. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in a research note on Tuesday. They set a "buy" rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $33.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $42.30.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Up 10.9%

KTOS traded up $4.51 during trading on Friday, hitting $45.84. 16,635,696 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,945,850. The company has a quick ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 2.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business's 50 day moving average is $37.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.33. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.91 and a fifty-two week high of $46.94. The stock has a market cap of $7.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 352.64 and a beta of 0.99.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report) last released 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. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.68% and a return on equity of 3.85%. The firm had revenue of $302.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Eric M. Demarco bought 7,455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was bought 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 now directly owns 1,396,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,899,600.83. This trade represents a 0.54% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marie Mendoza sold 2,419 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.87, for a total transaction of $101,283.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,825,722.56. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 151,572 shares of company stock worth $5,251,396. Insiders own 2.37% of the company's stock.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Profile

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.