Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) Price Target Raised to $3.00 at Susquehanna

Key Points

• Susquehanna raised its price target on Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and kept a "neutral" rating; MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $3.33, implying minimal upside.
• Shares and fundamentals: SPCE opened at $3.00 with a market cap of $219M, and remains unprofitable—Q1 EPS was ($0.98) (ahead of estimates) on just $0.31M of revenue, with deeply negative margins and ROE.
• Analyst views are mixed—one Buy, three Holds and two Sells—with targets and ratings ranging from Morgan Stanley's $2.30 underweight to Jefferies' $5.00 buy, highlighting divergent expectations for the company's recovery.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE - Get Free Report) had its price target upped by research analysts at Susquehanna from $2.50 to $3.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. Susquehanna's price target would indicate a potential upside of 0.03% from the stock's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SPCE. Morgan Stanley set a $2.30 price target on shares of Virgin Galactic and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Virgin Galactic from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $3.33.

Virgin Galactic Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SPCE opened at $3.00 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.24. Virgin Galactic has a 1-year low of $2.13 and a 1-year high of $6.64. The firm has a market cap of $219.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.51 and a beta of 2.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 30th. The company reported ($0.98) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.14. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 18,063.93% and a negative return on equity of 106.67%. The business had revenue of $0.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $0.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($2.53) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Virgin Galactic will post -16.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 61.9% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 13,608 shares of the company's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 5,205 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic in the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Virgin Galactic in the 4th quarter worth about $48,000. PharVision Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Virgin Galactic during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in Virgin Galactic by 78.2% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 45,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $144,000 after purchasing an additional 19,750 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.62% of the company's stock.

Virgin Galactic Company Profile

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc NYSE: SPCE is a commercial spaceflight company developing and operating spacecraft for private individuals and research customers. The firm's primary business is suborbital human spaceflight, offering passengers a brief trip to the edge of space aboard its reusable spaceplane. In parallel, the company is building out infrastructure and support services for suborbital payload deployments and microgravity research missions.

The core flight system consists of a carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, which lifts the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo to high altitude before release.

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