Aspen Aerogels upgraded to Buy from Hold at Benchmark

Benchmark analyst Subash Chandra upgraded Aspen Aerogels (ASPN) to Buy from Hold with a $14 price target. Shares declined 13% on Friday on disclosures that $233M was held at Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) as of March 10 and a $75M ATM program included in a $250M automatic shelf registration, notes the analyst, who believes Aspen was able to transfer cash out of SVB once the accounts became operational on March 13 and should not have suffered any financial losses or business discontinuity due to SVB exposure. Aspen "has been candid" about needing another capital raise eventually and the firm doesn’t see the ATM program as a significant overhang, the analyst added.