Castleark Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN)

Castleark Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (NYSE:ASPN) by 7.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 230,444 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 19,616 shares during the period. Castleark Management LLC owned about 0.30% of Aspen Aerogels worth $4,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Aspen Aerogels by 5.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,619,702 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $63,707,000 after acquiring an additional 175,906 shares during the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC raised its position in Aspen Aerogels by 12.2% during the first quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 3,300,443 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $58,088,000 after acquiring an additional 357,895 shares during the last quarter. AIGH Capital Management LLC raised its position in Aspen Aerogels by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. AIGH Capital Management LLC now owns 1,804,484 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $28,475,000 after acquiring an additional 52,462 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Aspen Aerogels by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,154,042 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $18,211,000 after acquiring an additional 404,042 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Aspen Aerogels during the fourth quarter worth about $12,015,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ASPN. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Aspen Aerogels from $30.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on shares of Aspen Aerogels from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Aspen Aerogels from $18.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $36.00 price objective (up previously from $28.00) on shares of Aspen Aerogels in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, B. Riley upgraded shares of Aspen Aerogels to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.75.

Aspen Aerogels Price Performance

ASPN traded up $0.52 during trading on Thursday, hitting $20.93. 741,395 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,157,182. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 4.01 and a quick ratio of 3.29. Aspen Aerogels, Inc. has a 1 year low of $5.32 and a 1 year high of $31.74.

Aspen Aerogels (NYSE:ASPN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The construction company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.14. The business had revenue of $94.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.04 million. Aspen Aerogels had a negative net margin of 10.73% and a negative return on equity of 6.35%. Sell-side analysts expect that Aspen Aerogels, Inc. will post 0.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aspen Aerogels news, SVP Corby C. Whitaker sold 55,159 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.01, for a total transaction of $1,379,526.59. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 131,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,289,640.33. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Corby C. Whitaker sold 55,159 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.01, for a total value of $1,379,526.59. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 131,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,289,640.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Wood River Capital, Llc sold 3,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.50, for a total transaction of $82,250,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,280,426 shares in the company, valued at approximately $288,590,011. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,832,103 shares of company stock valued at $91,679,369. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Aspen Aerogels Company Profile

Aspen Aerogels, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aerogel insulation products primarily for use in the energy infrastructure and sustainable insulation materials markets in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. It operates in two segments, Energy Industrial and Thermal Barrier.