Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Trading Down 4% - Time to Sell?

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $43.35 and last traded at $43.00. 943,520 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 2,016,394 shares. The stock had previously closed at $44.78.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on KTOS. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Benchmark raised their target price on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $54.00 price objective on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.25.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.59. The company has a market capitalization of $7.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 355.95 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.84, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $302.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a return on equity of 3.85% and a net margin of 1.68%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.11 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

In related news, insider Phillip D. Carrai sold 6,000 shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.16, for a total transaction of $252,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 276,085 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,639,743.60. The trade was a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Steven S. Fendley sold 7,000 shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.06, for a total value of $322,420.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 360,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,603,478.50. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 149,572 shares of company stock valued at $5,373,706 over the last quarter. 2.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KTOS. Rovida Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the fourth quarter worth about $46,789,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 11.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the first quarter worth about $41,118,000. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 129.2% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,163,223 shares of the aerospace company's stock worth $64,226,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the fourth quarter worth about $28,944,000. 75.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.