Empowered Funds LLC Grows Stake in Viavi Solutions Inc. $VIAV

Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAV) by 3,233.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 235,334 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 228,275 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Viavi Solutions were worth $7,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Viavi Solutions by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,620,410 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $278,356,000 after purchasing an additional 664,956 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Viavi Solutions by 3.5% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,846,226 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $86,875,000 after purchasing an additional 231,570 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Viavi Solutions by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,673,145 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $118,915,000 after purchasing an additional 33,463 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Viavi Solutions by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,351,211 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $95,373,000 after purchasing an additional 20,776 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Viavi Solutions by 116.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,809,513 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $67,886,000 after buying an additional 2,045,702 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Oleg Khaykin sold 136,547 shares of Viavi Solutions stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.82, for a total value of $7,075,865.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,188,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,603,512.36. The trade was a 10.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Doug Gilstrap sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $550,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 55,766 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,067,130. The trade was a 15.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 450,369 shares of company stock valued at $23,789,119. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Viavi Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of VIAV stock opened at $36.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $45.33 and its 200 day moving average is $38.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -153.95 and a beta of 1.18. Viavi Solutions Inc. has a 12 month low of $9.61 and a 12 month high of $60.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.03. Viavi Solutions had a negative net margin of 4.03% and a positive return on equity of 16.80%. The business had revenue of $406.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $393.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.15 EPS. Viavi Solutions’s revenue was up 42.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viavi Solutions Inc. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VIAV has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on Viavi Solutions from $25.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Viavi Solutions from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Viavi Solutions in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Viavi Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, B. Riley Financial boosted their price objective on Viavi Solutions from $26.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viavi Solutions currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.88.

Viavi Solutions Company Profile

Viavi Solutions Inc is a provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions for communications service providers, cable operators, enterprises and government agencies. The company offers an extensive portfolio of fiber optic and copper cable test and measurement instruments, wireless network testing equipment and network performance monitoring software. Its products are designed to support the deployment, maintenance and optimization of high-speed broadband, 5G wireless, data center and enterprise networks.

Viavi’s product offerings are organized into two primary segments: Network & Service Enablement and Optical Security & Performance.