Insider Selling: Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN) CAO Sells 4,410 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Aspen Aerogels' Chief Accounting Officer, Santhosh P. Daniel, sold 4,410 shares at an average price of $7.31, reducing their holdings by 18.16% to approximately 19,879 shares.
• The company reported a loss of $0.04 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, but its revenue decreased by 33.8% compared to the previous year.
• Aspen Aerogels has seen significant activity from institutional investors, with several firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, raising their stakes markedly in the company.

Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN - Get Free Report) CAO Santhosh P. Daniel sold 4,410 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.31, for a total value of $32,237.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 19,879 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $145,315.49. The trade was a 18.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Aspen Aerogels Trading Up 1.1%

NYSE:ASPN traded up $0.08 on Wednesday, reaching $7.50. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,478,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,058,091. Aspen Aerogels, Inc. has a 1-year low of $4.16 and a 1-year high of $33.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a current ratio of 3.98. The firm has a market cap of $617.70 million, a PE ratio of -1.97 and a beta of 2.73. The business's 50-day moving average price is $6.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.00.

Aspen Aerogels (NYSE:ASPN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The construction company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $78.02 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $72.53 million. Aspen Aerogels had a positive return on equity of 2.92% and a negative net margin of 78.53%. Aspen Aerogels's revenue for the quarter was down 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.21 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aspen Aerogels, Inc. will post 0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ASPN shares. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Aspen Aerogels from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Oppenheimer cut Aspen Aerogels from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays cut Aspen Aerogels from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $7.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aspen Aerogels presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ASPN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Aspen Aerogels by 311.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 105,591 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,254,000 after buying an additional 79,901 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Aspen Aerogels by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,464,163 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $17,398,000 after buying an additional 78,195 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in Aspen Aerogels by 158.6% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 216,049 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $2,567,000 after buying an additional 132,489 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Aspen Aerogels by 118.4% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,262 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $561,000 after buying an additional 25,620 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in Aspen Aerogels by 654.9% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 25,237 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $300,000 after buying an additional 21,894 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.64% of the company's stock.

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.

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