Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) Stock Price Up 11% – Still a Buy?

Rocket Lab Corporation (NASDAQ:RKLB) shot up 11% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $60.25 and last traded at $59.92. 27,620,621 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 33% from the average session volume of 20,815,910 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.96.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on RKLB. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of Rocket Lab in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Rocket Lab from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Rocket Lab in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Baird R W upgraded Rocket Lab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Rocket Lab in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Rocket Lab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.17.

Rocket Lab Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a current ratio of 3.18. The stock has a market cap of $32.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -157.68 and a beta of 2.20. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $54.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.65.

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The rocket manufacturer reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $155.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $152.45 million. Rocket Lab had a negative return on equity of 27.26% and a negative net margin of 35.64%.Rocket Lab’s quarterly revenue was up 48.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Rocket Lab Corporation will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Rocket Lab

In other Rocket Lab news, Director Merline Saintil sold 15,000 shares of Rocket Lab stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $975,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 398,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,904,385. The trade was a 3.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Frank Klein sold 41,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.65, for a total transaction of $1,698,438.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,274,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,797,164.95. The trade was a 3.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 3,566,759 shares of company stock worth $191,361,452 in the last quarter. 11.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Rocket Lab

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Rocket Lab by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,432 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the period. Keel Point LLC lifted its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 0.4% in the third quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 51,428 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,464,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 1.9% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 12,352 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock valued at $442,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Rocket Lab by 22.1% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Finally, Parvin Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Rocket Lab by 7.2% during the second quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 3,725 shares of the rocket manufacturer’s stock worth $133,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. 71.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab USA, Inc, a space company, provides launch services and space systems solutions for the space and defense industries. The company provides launch services, spacecraft design services, spacecraft components, spacecraft manufacturing, and other spacecraft and on-orbit management solutions; and constellation management services, as well as designs and manufactures small and medium-class rockets.