Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Stock Price Up 1.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS - Get Free Report) shot up 1.9% on Wednesday after Benchmark raised their price target on the stock from $48.00 to $50.00. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions traded as high as $44.75 and last traded at $45.18. 555,010 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 2,026,655 shares. The stock had previously closed at $44.34.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on KTOS. Stifel Nicolaus set a $54.00 target price on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $52.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, June 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kratos Defense & Security Solutions news, 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 value of $247,904.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 318,766 shares in the company, valued at $12,033,416.50. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jonah Adelman sold 40,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.76, for a total transaction of $1,350,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 39,348 shares in the company, valued at $1,328,388.48. This represents a 50.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 149,572 shares of company stock worth $5,373,706 in the last ninety days. 2.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KTOS. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 21,169 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 3,452 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 90.5% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,284 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,513,437 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $39,924,000 after acquiring an additional 14,588 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 48.7% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,729 shares of the aerospace company's stock valued at $943,000 after acquiring an additional 11,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,156,000. 75.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a current ratio of 2.84. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $39.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 356.49 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Company Profile

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.