Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Sets New 12-Month High - Should You Buy?

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report)'s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $39.96 and last traded at $38.91, with a volume of 791554 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $38.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $27.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $36.75.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Trading Up 0.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 404.74 and a beta of 0.99. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $34.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.61, a current ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $302.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.31% and a return on equity of 3.68%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

In other Kratos Defense & Security Solutions news, CEO Eric M. Demarco acquired 7,455 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was purchased 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 owns 1,396,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,899,600.83. This trade represents a 0.54% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jonah Adelman sold 40,000 shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.76, for a total transaction of $1,350,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 39,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,328,388.48. This trade represents a 50.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 151,184 shares of company stock worth $5,149,125. Corporate insiders own 2.37% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KTOS. Rovida Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,789,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $488,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,728,179 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the first quarter worth approximately $41,118,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,944,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 75.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,402,444 shares of the aerospace company's stock worth $71,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,223 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.92% of the company's stock.

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.