Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS)

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 10,731 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 169% compared to the average daily volume of 3,992 call options.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Trading Down 6.6%

NASDAQ KTOS opened at $40.77 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 313.64 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.16. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has a one year low of $17.91 and a one year high of $46.52.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The aerospace company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $302.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.25 million. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.68% and a return on equity of 3.85%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.11 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KTOS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $33.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Noble Financial raised their price target on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bobbi Doorenbos sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $175,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at $175,000. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marie Mendoza sold 2,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.87, for a total value of $101,283.53. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,825,722.56. This represents a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 151,572 shares of company stock worth $5,251,396 over the last three months. 2.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 295,980 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $7,808,000 after buying an additional 44,048 shares during the last quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC now owns 38,690 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,149,000 after buying an additional 8,319 shares during the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $471,000. MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,726,000. Finally, Moran Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in the 4th quarter worth approximately $447,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.92% of the company’s stock.

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.