NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Orbital ATK (OA)  stock is up 3.44% to $71.63 in afternoon trading Tuesday after Barclays upgraded its rating to "overweight" from "equal weight," but lowered its price target to $100 from $145. 

Barclays analysts established a new price target of $100 which assumes a 16.5x target P/E on 2016E earnings.

Orbital ATK is engaged in aerospace and defense technologies.

Analysts find there is a compelling growth profile for GAAP earnings (around 13%) and free cash flow (around 17%) both of which are augmented by very attractive free cash flow conversion over the next five years, Barclays said, adding that this enables sizable deployments.  

"Orbital's discounted valuation is arguably the result of concerns related to a rocket launch failure last year," analysts said.  

However, given Orbital's multi-decade track record in the launch arena, we think these risks are more than appropriately discounted.  

"We think an incremental uptick in capital deployment to shareholders could lay ahead and is supported by Orbital's robust multi-year cash generation profile, which benefits from $600-$700 million in long term receivables collection, Barclays noted. 

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates ORBITAL ATK INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate ORBITAL ATK INC (OA) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• OA's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 0.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.5%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• Compared to where it was a year ago today, the stock is now trading at a higher level, regardless of the company's weak earnings results. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• ORBITAL ATK INC's earnings per share declined by 41.9% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. We feel it is likely to report a decline in earnings in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, ORBITAL ATK INC increased its bottom line by earning $10.46 versus $8.32 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 55.4% in earnings ($4.67 versus $10.46).
• The gross profit margin for ORBITAL ATK INC is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 27.18%. Regardless of OA's low profit margin, it has managed to increase from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 3.64% trails the industry average.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: OA Ratings Report