Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Shares Up 4.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report)'s share price traded up 4.5% during trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $33.00 to $44.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions traded as high as $42.70 and last traded at $43.06. 602,191 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 1,768,751 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.21.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. 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 lifted their target price 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. Truist Financial increased their price target on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Benchmark raised their price target on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $38.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kratos Defense & Security Solutions news, Director Bobbi Doorenbos sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $175,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $175,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Deanna H. Lund sold 6,567 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $247,904.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 318,766 shares in the company, valued at $12,033,416.50. The trade was a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,153 shares of company stock worth $4,897,153 over the last quarter. 2.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rovida Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,789,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the first quarter worth $41,118,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the fourth quarter valued at $28,944,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 75.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,402,444 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $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.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Performance

The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $35.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.56. The firm has a market cap of $6.57 billion, a PE ratio of 428.49 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.22, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.