Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 1st, 2023

Nikola Co. (NASDAQ:NKLA – Get Free Report)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Monday after DA Davidson raised their price target on the stock from $1.00 to $3.00. The stock had previously closed at $2.27, but opened at $2.44. DA Davidson currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Nikola shares last traded at $2.57, with a volume of 49,915,995 shares trading hands.

Separately, TD Cowen downgraded Nikola from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $5.00 to $1.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $4.50.

Insider Transactions at Nikola

In other Nikola news, Director Mark A. Russell sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $0.79, for a total value of $59,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,884,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,489,084.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 10.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nikola

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in Nikola by 14.5% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 91,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,000 after acquiring an additional 11,656 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in Nikola in the second quarter valued at about $197,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Nikola by 34.1% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 60,796 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 15,452 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Nikola by 42.7% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 77,284 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 23,118 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Nikola by 26.4% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 104,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,000 after acquiring an additional 21,810 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 23.80% of the company’s stock.

Nikola Trading Up 17.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.55 and a beta of 1.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.58.

Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.31). The company had revenue of $11.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.25 million. Nikola had a negative return on equity of 143.04% and a negative net margin of 1,332.76%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Nikola Co. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Nikola Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Nikola Corporation operates as a technology innovator and integrator that develops energy and transportation solutions. It operates through two business units, Truck and Energy. The Truck business unit develops and commercializes battery electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) to the trucking sector.