AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) Stock Price Down 2.1% – Time to Sell?

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) shares were down 2.1% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $205.00 and last traded at $211.35. Approximately 1,877,390 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 5% from the average daily volume of 1,970,497 shares. The stock had previously closed at $215.85.

More AeroVironment News

Here are the key news stories impacting AeroVironment this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Completed acquisition of Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) — $200M deal expands engineering, AS9100 manufacturing and hybrid/electric propulsion capabilities, supporting AVAV’s defense and autonomous-aircraft growth strategy. AeroVironment Acquires ESAero
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst consensus remains constructive — recent aggregator coverage shows a “Moderate Buy” consensus and many buy/outperform ratings, which supports longer?term investor interest. Analysts Give “Moderate Buy”
• Neutral Sentiment: Q3 results: revenue rose ~143% YoY (helped by acquisitions) but AVAV missed consensus revenue and EPS, and guidance is mixed — strong top?line growth supports the long?term thesis while the miss tempers near?term expectations. AVAV Reports $408M FQ3 Revenue
• Neutral Sentiment: Management visibility: AeroVironment presented at the JPMorgan Industrials Conference (transcript available) — useful for investor Q&A but no material surprise emerged. JPMorgan Presentation Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sales disclosed (CAO and a director sold ~200–250 shares each) — routine trimming by insiders, not a large stake reduction but monitored by investors. Insider Sales Filing
• Negative Sentiment: Investor litigation risk: Pomerantz LLP launched an investigation into AVAV (followed by other firms soliciting inquiries) — multiple probes raise headline and legal risk, increasing short?term uncertainty. Pomerantz Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst target cuts and risk coverage: BTIG trimmed its target (and others have lowered targets) while several media pieces flagged AVAV as a risky small?cap play — these items pressure sentiment despite buy ratings. BTIG Price Target Cut

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on AVAV shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of AeroVironment from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of AeroVironment in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on AeroVironment from $389.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on AeroVironment from $486.00 to $429.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $318.78.

AeroVironment Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a P/E ratio of -48.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $275.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $291.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 4.54 and a current ratio of 5.51.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The aerospace company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($0.04). AeroVironment had a positive return on equity of 3.26% and a negative net margin of 13.93%.The firm had revenue of $408.05 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $487.94 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.30 earnings per share. AeroVironment’s quarterly revenue was up 143.4% on a year-over-year basis. AeroVironment has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.750-3.100 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that AeroVironment, Inc. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AeroVironment

In other news, CAO Brian Charles Shackley sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.52, for a total transaction of $42,504.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 5,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,231,340.88. This represents a 3.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.55, for a total transaction of $88,921.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 16,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,598,638.30. This trade represents a 2.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 4,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,486,038 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AeroVironment

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AeroVironment by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,530,073 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $1,111,585,000 after acquiring an additional 51,959 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in AeroVironment during the third quarter worth approximately $314,890,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in AeroVironment by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 884,395 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $213,956,000 after purchasing an additional 71,903 shares during the period. Heard Capital LLC raised its position in AeroVironment by 48.4% during the fourth quarter. Heard Capital LLC now owns 722,150 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $174,681,000 after purchasing an additional 235,685 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 17.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 686,273 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $216,101,000 after purchasing an additional 101,713 shares during the last quarter. 86.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AeroVironment Company Profile

AeroVironment, Inc (NASDAQ:AVAV) is a technology company specializing in unmanned aerial systems (UAS), tactical missiles and precision loitering munitions, electric vehicle charging and scalable energy systems. Headquartered in Monrovia, California, the company develops solutions for defense, public safety and commercial markets. Their offerings include small UAS for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as advanced weapons systems designed to meet the needs of modern military operations.

The company’s unmanned aerial systems portfolio features platforms such as the Raven, Puma and Switchblade series, which are deployed by the U.S.