Aristides Capital LLC Buys New Stake in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Aristides Capital LLC purchased a new position in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 21,800 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $186,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Viasat by 2.6% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 63,656 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $760,000 after buying an additional 1,584 shares in the last quarter. Centiva Capital LP acquired a new position in Viasat in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $328,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Viasat by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after purchasing an additional 276,376 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI acquired a new position in Viasat during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its position in Viasat by 28.1% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,419,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,766,000 after acquiring an additional 969,942 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Viasat in a research note on Friday, January 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday, February 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.57.

Insider Transactions at Viasat

In other news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 3,750,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total transaction of $33,750,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,795,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,158,006. This represents a 43.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of Viasat stock opened at $8.33 on Tuesday. Viasat, Inc. has a twelve month low of $6.69 and a twelve month high of $26.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.48 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.73.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by ($0.70). Viasat had a negative return on equity of 8.37% and a negative net margin of 9.49%. As a group, research analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Viasat

Viasat, Inc provides broadband and communications products and services worldwide. The company's Satellite Services segment offers satellite-based fixed broadband services, including broadband internet access and voice over internet protocol services to consumers and businesses; in-flight entertainment and aviation software services to commercial airlines and private business jets; satellite-based connectivity services; mobile broadband services, including satellite-based internet services to energy offshore vessels, cruise ships, consumer ferries, and yachts; and energy services, which include ultra-secure solutions IP connectivity, bandwidth-optimized over-the-top applications, industrial internet-of-things big data enablement, and industry-leading machine learning analytics.