Investors Buy Large Volume of Virgin Galactic Call Options (NYSE:SPCE)

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 25,697 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 55% compared to the typical volume of 16,586 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Virgin Galactic

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SPCE. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 284.7% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 90,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 67,303 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 40,487 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 7,282 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 77.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 16,369 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Virgin Galactic by 44.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 19,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 6,143 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Virgin Galactic in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $195,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.62% of the company’s stock.

Virgin Galactic Price Performance

NYSE SPCE traded up $0.05 during trading on Monday, hitting $2.99. 5,999,665 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,371,979. The company has a market capitalization of $243.01 million, a P/E ratio of -0.50 and a beta of 2.18. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. Virgin Galactic has a 12-month low of $2.13 and a 12-month high of $6.64.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 30th. The company reported ($0.98) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.14. The business had revenue of $0.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.41 million. Virgin Galactic had a negative return on equity of 106.67% and a negative net margin of 18,063.93%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($2.53) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Virgin Galactic will post -3.6 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SPCE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen cut Virgin Galactic from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Virgin Galactic from $8.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Virgin Galactic from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $3.33.

About Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SPCE) is a commercial spaceflight company developing and operating spacecraft for private individuals and research customers. The firm’s primary business is suborbital human spaceflight, offering passengers a brief trip to the edge of space aboard its reusable spaceplane. In parallel, the company is building out infrastructure and support services for suborbital payload deployments and microgravity research missions.

The core flight system consists of a carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, which lifts the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo to high altitude before release.