Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $18.33.

VSAT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 20th.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value of $32,824.44. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at $3,226,732.71. This trade represents a 1.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 969,942 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 1,145.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after buying an additional 750,904 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after buying an additional 276,376 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Viasat by 63.6% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,181,000 after buying an additional 250,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,980,000. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Viasat Stock Performance

Shares of VSAT stock opened at $8.89 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.49. Viasat has a 52 week low of $6.69 and a 52 week high of $26.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of -2.85 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($6.16) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Viasat will post -2.64 EPS for the current 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.