Traders Buy High Volume of Rocket Lab Call Options (NASDAQ:RKLB)

Rocket Lab Corporation (NASDAQ:RKLB) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 109,154 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 51% compared to the typical volume of 72,224 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RKLB. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Rocket Lab from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on Rocket Lab from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen upgraded Rocket Lab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Rocket Lab from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Roth Capital lifted their target price on Rocket Lab from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Rocket Lab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.10.

Rocket Lab Stock Performance

Shares of RKLB stock opened at $30.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market capitalization of $13.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -75.10 and a beta of 2.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $24.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.88. Rocket Lab has a fifty-two week low of $4.20 and a fifty-two week high of $33.34.

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The rocket manufacturer reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $122.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.74 million. Rocket Lab had a negative net margin of 44.32% and a negative return on equity of 48.92%. Rocket Lab’s revenue was up 32.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. Analysts expect that Rocket Lab will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Rocket Lab

In other Rocket Lab news, insider Arjun Kampani sold 5,194 shares of Rocket Lab stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.52, for a total value of $137,744.88. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 535,424 shares in the company, valued at $14,199,444.48. The trade was a 0.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Frank Klein sold 2,569 shares of Rocket Lab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total value of $76,992.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,415,075 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,409,797.75. This represents a 0.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,118,289 shares of company stock valued at $29,287,134 in the last ninety days. 13.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Rocket Lab

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RKLB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 10.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,029,546 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $715,728,000 after buying an additional 3,833,969 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,285,693 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $211,084,000 after acquiring an additional 32,658 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 56.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,738,250 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $66,840,000 after acquiring an additional 1,343,518 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 30,853.3% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,696,136 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $94,141,000 after acquiring an additional 3,684,195 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,227,617 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $82,207,000 after acquiring an additional 281,339 shares during the period. 71.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab USA, Inc, a space company, provides launch services and space systems solutions for the space and defense industries. The company provides launch services, spacecraft design services, spacecraft components, spacecraft manufacturing, and other spacecraft and on-orbit management solutions; and constellation management services, as well as designs and manufactures small and medium-class rockets.