JANA Partners Management LP Trims Stake in Mercury Systems Inc $MRCY

JANA Partners Management LP decreased its position in Mercury Systems Inc (NASDAQ:MRCY) by 11.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,959,481 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 793,932 shares during the quarter. Mercury Systems accounts for 22.3% of JANA Partners Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. JANA Partners Management LP owned about 9.92% of Mercury Systems worth $461,264,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mercury Systems by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,731,033 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $443,582,000 after purchasing an additional 221,093 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Mercury Systems by 8.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,246,573 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $174,860,000 after purchasing an additional 259,388 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Mercury Systems by 96.3% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,532,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,640,000 after purchasing an additional 751,813 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Mercury Systems by 161.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,527,443 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $118,224,000 after buying an additional 943,736 shares during the period. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in Mercury Systems by 4.9% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,295,284 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $100,255,000 after buying an additional 60,483 shares during the period. 95.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on MRCY shares. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $102.00 price objective on Mercury Systems in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Mercury Systems in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Mercury Systems from $102.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Mercury Systems from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Mercury Systems in a research report on Sunday, February 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mercury Systems has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.89.

Mercury Systems Trading Down 4.0%

Shares of MRCY opened at $78.16 on Monday. Mercury Systems Inc has a 1-year low of $39.89 and a 1-year high of $103.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.96, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $90.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -147.47, a PEG ratio of 7.57 and a beta of 0.77.

Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.09. Mercury Systems had a negative net margin of 3.23% and a positive return on equity of 1.28%. The company had revenue of $232.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $209.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. Mercury Systems’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Mercury Systems Inc will post -0.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Mercury Systems

In related news, Director Jana Partners Management, Lp sold 400,000 shares of Mercury Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total transaction of $32,400,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,566,675 shares in the company, valued at $369,900,675. The trade was a 8.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Douglas Munro sold 582 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.56, for a total value of $48,631.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 14,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,197,247.68. The trade was a 3.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 859,758 shares of company stock worth $74,481,931 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Mercury Systems Company Profile

Mercury Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: MRCY) is a technology company that designs, manufactures and markets secure processing subsystems for aerospace and defense applications. The company’s products are built to address the stringent security, safety and reliability requirements of mission-critical programs, with a focus on radar, electronic warfare, intelligence and other sensor and processing functions. Mercury’s offerings encompass rugged embedded computing modules, high-performance radio frequency (RF) and microwave components, digital signal processing subsystems and secure networking solutions.

Since its origins in advanced signal processing, Mercury Systems has expanded its capabilities through a combination of internal development and targeted acquisitions.