Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Reduces Position in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. $KTOS

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) by 76.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 503,348 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 1,675,325 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned about 0.33% of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions worth $23,381,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 42.2% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 57,011 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $2,648,000 after buying an additional 16,906 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,986,000. Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions during the second quarter worth $244,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 16.8% during the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 42,729 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,985,000 after acquiring an additional 6,153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions by 1.3% in the second quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 240,436 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $11,168,000 after acquiring an additional 3,083 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.92% of the company’s stock.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ KTOS opened at $72.45 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $84.61 and its 200 day moving average is $61.64. The stock has a market cap of $12.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 724.57 and a beta of 1.11. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has a 1-year low of $23.90 and a 1-year high of $112.57. The company has a current ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 3.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions had a net margin of 1.20% and a return on equity of 3.10%. The business had revenue of $347.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $323.01 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.11 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.0% on a year-over-year basis. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. will post 0.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kratos Defense & Security Solutions news, SVP Marie Mendoza sold 1,440 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.10, for a total transaction of $139,824.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 60,396 shares in the company, valued at $5,864,451.60. This represents a 2.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Phillip D. Carrai sold 6,000 shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.90, for a total value of $581,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 252,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,422,772.90. This represents a 2.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 82,716 shares of company stock valued at $6,608,725 over the last three months. 2.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on KTOS. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $70.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, B. Riley lowered shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $105.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.36.

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.