Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $42.10, but opened at $43.72. Mercury Systems shares last traded at $43.27, with a volume of 51,297 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Mercury Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $37.00 to $58.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial raised shares of Mercury Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $49.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday. Baird R W upgraded shares of Mercury Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mercury Systems from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Mercury Systems from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.86.

Mercury Systems Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a PE ratio of -28.17 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.36 and a current ratio of 3.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.82.

Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported ($0.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.04). Mercury Systems had a negative net margin of 10.23% and a negative return on equity of 2.03%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Mercury Systems, Inc. will post -0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Mercury Systems

In related news, CAO Douglas Munro sold 595 shares of Mercury Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.12, for a total transaction of $26,251.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $642,916.64. The trade was a 3.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Stuart Kupinsky sold 2,377 shares of Mercury Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.12, for a total value of $104,873.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,834 shares in the company, valued at $2,772,236.08. This represents a 3.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,314 shares of company stock worth $234,454 over the last ninety days. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mercury Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Mercury Systems by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,550,610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $233,126,000 after purchasing an additional 41,324 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Mercury Systems by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,202,124 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $92,490,000 after purchasing an additional 52,725 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Mercury Systems by 55.9% in the 4th quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,072,817 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $87,058,000 after purchasing an additional 743,552 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Mercury Systems by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,060,131 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,526,000 after purchasing an additional 294,747 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Mercury Systems by 196.1% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,023,508 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,987,000 after purchasing an additional 677,894 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.99% of the company’s stock.

About Mercury Systems

Mercury Systems, Inc, a technology company, manufactures and sells components, products, modules, and subsystems for aerospace and defense industries in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Its products and solutions are deployed in approximately 300 programs with 25 defense contractors and commercial aviation customers.