Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) Stock Price

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) had its target price increased by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the rocket manufacturer’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.07% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Roth Capital raised their price objective on Rocket Lab from $25.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Craig Hallum began coverage on Rocket Lab in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $51.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America raised their price objective on Rocket Lab from $30.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Rocket Lab from $29.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Rocket Lab in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Rocket Lab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.27.

Rocket Lab Stock Performance

RKLB opened at $44.69 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -99.31 and a beta of 2.17. Rocket Lab has a 52-week low of $5.03 and a 52-week high of $53.44. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $37.55 and its 200-day moving average is $27.81.

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The rocket manufacturer reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.07) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $144.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $135.42 million. Rocket Lab had a negative return on equity of 56.25% and a negative net margin of 45.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.08) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Rocket Lab will post -0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew Ocko sold 820,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.01, for a total transaction of $21,328,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,083,053 shares in the company, valued at $28,170,208.53. This trade represents a 43.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Frank Klein sold 44,885 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.66, for a total value of $1,196,634.10. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,370,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,529,265.40. This trade represents a 3.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,130,995 shares of company stock valued at $29,686,039 over the last three months. 11.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Rocket Lab

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Rocket Lab by 10.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,029,546 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $715,728,000 after acquiring an additional 3,833,969 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Rocket Lab in the second quarter valued at approximately $192,918,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake 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 grew its stake 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 grew its stake 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 currently owned by 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.