Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Buys 274,587 Shares of Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN - Free Report) by 49.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 828,789 shares of the construction company's stock after purchasing an additional 274,587 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned 1.01% of Aspen Aerogels worth $5,296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ASPN. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aspen Aerogels by 96.2% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 299,311 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,901,000 after acquiring an additional 146,794 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aspen Aerogels during the 1st quarter valued at about $681,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aspen Aerogels during the 1st quarter valued at about $109,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aspen Aerogels by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,360,246 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $51,800,000 after acquiring an additional 226,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aspen Aerogels by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 107,764 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,280,000 after acquiring an additional 15,462 shares during the last quarter. 97.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Donald R. Young bought 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $5.35 per share, for a total transaction of $107,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 550,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,947,079.60. The trade was a 3.77% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 4.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ASPN shares. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and set a $7.00 price target (down previously from $13.00) on shares of Aspen Aerogels in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Aspen Aerogels from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Aspen Aerogels has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $18.44.

Aspen Aerogels Stock Performance

Shares of ASPN traded up $0.34 on Thursday, reaching $6.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,094,241 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,029,615. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 3.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $548.08 million, a P/E ratio of -1.91 and a beta of 2.65. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $6.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.64. Aspen Aerogels, Inc. has a 12-month low of $4.16 and a 12-month high of $33.15.

Aspen Aerogels (NYSE:ASPN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The construction company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.01. Aspen Aerogels had a negative net margin of 65.47% and a positive return on equity of 6.69%. The company had revenue of $78.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $82.75 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.02) EPS. The firm's revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Aspen Aerogels, Inc. will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Aspen Aerogels

Aspen Aerogels, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aerogel insulation products primarily for use in the energy infrastructure and sustainable insulation materials markets in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. It operates in two segments, Energy Industrial and Thermal Barrier.