Virgin Galactic Stock Takes Flight After Upgrade

Morgan Stanley upgraded from "equal-weight" to "overweight"

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) is up 6.9% to trade at $17.45 at last check. The aerospace company was upgraded to "overweight" from "equal-weight" by Morgan Stanley, who believes the company has a healthy enough cash position to navigate the near-term discord. However, Morgan Stanley also cut its price target to $24 from $30 due to the measures the space exploration name has taken due to COVID-19, such as cancelled flights and discounts.

SPCE's roller-coaster run on the charts have been well-documented. Although the equity is up 52.6% year-to-date, today's pullback has the shares meetingresistance at their 20-day moving average.

Sentiment over Virgin Galactic is split coming into today with one of only two analysts in coverage sporting a "strong buy" and the other a "hold." Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus target price of $29.67 is still an ambitious 67.9% premium to current levels.

In the last reporting period, short interest on SPCE fell 18.3% to 15.74 million shares. However, this still accounts for 28.3% of the stock's available float, indicating bears remain firmly in control.

The volume in the options pitsthe last 10 days has seen puts come out on top. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), 1.09 puts have been bought for every call in the past two weeks.