Investors Buy Large Volume of Rocket Lab Call Options (NASDAQ:RKLB)

Rocket Lab Corporation (NASDAQ:RKLB) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 115,217 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 50% compared to the typical daily volume of 76,571 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on RKLB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Rocket Lab in a research note on Monday, June 30th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $27.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Rocket Lab from $29.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Rocket Lab from $29.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Rocket Lab from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Rocket Lab from $21.00 to $18.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Matthew Ocko sold 820,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total transaction of $21,328,200.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,083,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,170,208.53. This represents a 43.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Merline Saintil sold 6,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.41, for a total transaction of $186,841.73. Following the transaction, the director owned 425,922 shares in the company, valued at $12,526,366.02. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,130,995 shares of company stock valued at $29,686,039. 13.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Rocket Lab

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RKLB. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Rocket Lab during the fourth quarter valued at $17,261,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 2,186.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 353,522 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $6,321,000 after purchasing an additional 338,062 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 52.0% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 58,652 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 20,076 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Rocket Lab in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,748,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,902,212 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $73,919,000 after purchasing an additional 23,855 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.78% of the company’s stock.

Rocket Lab Trading Up 9.0%

NASDAQ RKLB opened at $38.88 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.73. The stock has a market cap of $17.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -97.20 and a beta of 2.15. Rocket Lab has a 12-month low of $4.20 and a 12-month high of $39.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97.

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

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.