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

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 29,697 call options on the company. This is an increase of 46% compared to the typical volume of 20,307 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Virgin Galactic

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SPCE. AXQ Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Virgin Galactic during the second quarter worth about $216,000. ABC Arbitrage SA grew its position in Virgin Galactic by 33.3% during the 2nd quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA now owns 73,973 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,000 after purchasing an additional 18,465 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp acquired a new position in Virgin Galactic during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Clarius Group LLC acquired a new position in Virgin Galactic during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft acquired a new position in Virgin Galactic during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 46.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SPCE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research reissued a “peer perform” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley set a $2.30 target price on shares of Virgin Galactic and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Virgin Galactic in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (up from $3.25) on shares of Virgin Galactic in a report on Thursday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Virgin Galactic currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $4.33.

Virgin Galactic Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of SPCE traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $3.06. The company had a trading volume of 3,580,454 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,257,954. Virgin Galactic has a one year low of $2.18 and a one year high of $6.64. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $3.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.52. The company has a market capitalization of $175.94 million, a PE ratio of -0.41 and a beta of 2.01. The company has a current ratio of 2.87, a quick ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.51) by $0.42. Virgin Galactic had a negative net margin of 17,615.71% and a negative return on equity of 108.00%. The business had revenue of $0.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.32 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Virgin Galactic will post -16.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virgin Galactic Company Profile

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.