Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) Trading Up 5.6% – Should You Buy?

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) shares rose 5.6% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $7.94 and last traded at $7.99. Approximately 4,791,801 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 13,052,246 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.56.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JOBY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $9.00 price objective on shares of Joby Aviation in a research note on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Joby Aviation from $6.00 to $5.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $7.00 price target (down previously from $10.00) on shares of Joby Aviation in a report on Friday, April 11th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Joby Aviation in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 price objective on shares of Joby Aviation in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.67.

Joby Aviation Stock Up 7.8%

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $6.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.32. The stock has a market cap of $6.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.64 and a beta of 2.39.

Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $0.07. Joby Aviation had a negative return on equity of 51.76% and a negative net margin of 42,844.57%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.14) EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Joby Aviation, Inc. will post -0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Motor Corp/ Toyota acquired 49,701,790 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $5.03 per share, with a total value of $250,000,003.70. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 122,573,621 shares in the company, valued at $616,545,313.63. This trade represents a 68.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Paul Cahill Sciarra sold 166,667 shares of Joby Aviation stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.73, for a total value of $955,001.91. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 58,328,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $334,219,789.53. This trade represents a 0.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 750,950 shares of company stock valued at $4,640,619 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 28.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Joby Aviation

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JOBY. Toyota Motor Corp purchased a new position in Joby Aviation during the 4th quarter valued at about $640,259,000. Uber Technologies Inc bought a new position in shares of Joby Aviation during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $207,842,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Joby Aviation by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 46,760,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,163,000 after buying an additional 6,388,232 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Joby Aviation by 331.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 4,260,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,634,000 after buying an additional 3,272,597 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Joby Aviation during the first quarter worth $18,936,000. 52.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Joby Aviation Company Profile

Joby Aviation, Inc, a vertically integrated air mobility company, engages in building an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft optimized to deliver air transportation as a service. The company intends to build an aerial ridesharing service, as well as developing an application-based platform that will enable consumers to book rides.