Wall Street Zen Downgrades Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) to Sell

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Virgin Galactic from “hold” to “sell” in a new research report, adding to a mixed analyst picture on the stock.
• Despite the downgrade, other firms have been more upbeat recently: Susquehanna raised its target price to $3.00 with a neutral rating, and Jefferies upgraded the stock to strong-buy. The overall consensus rating remains Hold with an average price target of $3.43.
• Virgin Galactic continues to face weak fundamentals, including a recent quarterly loss of ($0.81) per share and revenue of just $0.23 million. The stock opened at $2.49, near its 52-week low of $2.13.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Virgin Galactic to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Virgin Galactic from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (e+)" rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $3.43.

Virgin Galactic Stock Performance

SPCE opened at $2.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $251.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.57 and a beta of 2.74. The company has a fifty day moving average of $3.37 and a 200 day moving average of $2.95. Virgin Galactic has a fifty-two week low of $2.13 and a fifty-two week high of $8.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.81) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.86) by $0.05. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 19,781.30% and a negative return on equity of 103.89%. The company had revenue of $0.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.20 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Virgin Galactic will post -2.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Virgin Galactic

In other Virgin Galactic news, Director Diana S. Strandberg bought 20,000 shares of Virgin Galactic stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $2.49 per share, for a total transaction of $49,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 70,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $176,615.70. This represents a 39.27% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SPCE. Focus Financial Network Inc. purchased a new position in Virgin Galactic in the second quarter worth about $6,880,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Virgin Galactic by 26.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,342,026 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,040,000 after purchasing an additional 496,373 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Virgin Galactic by 149.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 573,296 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 343,444 shares during the last quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Virgin Galactic in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $899,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 118.9% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 479,789 shares of the company's stock worth $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 260,594 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.62% of the company's stock.

About Virgin Galactic

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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