Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Sets New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $30.39 and last traded at $30.05, with a volume of 710186 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $28.21.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VSAT. B. Riley cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Viasat from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.13.

Viasat Stock Up 6.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.50 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $18.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.65.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.32. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 6.37% and a negative net margin of 13.11%.The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,646,644 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $152,618,000 after buying an additional 872,784 shares during the last quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 60.0% during the second quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $87,600,000 after buying an additional 2,250,000 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in Viasat by 15.8% during the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,845,100 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $85,338,000 after buying an additional 796,349 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its stake in Viasat by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 5,541,636 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $80,908,000 after purchasing an additional 351,404 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Viasat by 64.9% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,866,242 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,128,338 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

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.