Public Sector Pension Investment Board Raises Stake in AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 61,538 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after buying an additional 4,167 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in AeroVironment were worth $11,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,094,831 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $474,376,000 after purchasing an additional 179,395 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 132.7% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,511,676 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $275,367,000 after purchasing an additional 861,962 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 350,733 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $53,760,000 after purchasing an additional 28,288 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 187.5% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 221,749 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $27,949,000 after purchasing an additional 144,628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AeroVironment by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 213,454 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $26,904,000 after purchasing an additional 9,530 shares during the last quarter. 86.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $161.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of AeroVironment from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $216.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of AeroVironment from $230.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Raymond James downgraded AeroVironment from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of AeroVironment from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.20.

AeroVironment Trading Up 11.9 %

Shares of AVAV opened at $204.50 on Tuesday. AeroVironment, Inc. has a 12 month low of $104.67 and a 12 month high of $224.00. The stock has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a PE ratio of 92.12 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 4.26 and a quick ratio of 3.04. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $180.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.81.

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The aerospace company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $189.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $183.18 million. AeroVironment had a return on equity of 9.87% and a net margin of 7.82%. AeroVironment’s quarterly revenue was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AeroVironment, Inc. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at AeroVironment

In other news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total transaction of $77,703.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,581,799.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kevin Patrick Mcdonnell sold 396 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.22, for a total transaction of $77,703.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,254 shares in the company, valued at $3,581,799.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Wahid Nawabi sold 9,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.23, for a total value of $1,669,792.41. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 99,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,904,723.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,287 shares of company stock valued at $1,928,305 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About AeroVironment

AeroVironment, Inc designs, develops, produces, delivers, and supports a portfolio of robotic systems and related services for government agencies and businesses in the United States and internationally. It operates through Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), Tactical Missile System (TMS), Medium Unmanned Aircraft Systems (MUAS), and High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite Systems (HAPS) segments.