Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Receives $23.29 Average PT from Analysts

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.2857.

Several analysts have weighed in on VSAT shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $23.00 price target (up from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wall Street Zen raised Viasat from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Viasat Stock Performance

Viasat stock opened at $35.69 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock has a market cap of $4.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.73 and a beta of 1.21. Viasat has a fifty-two week low of $6.69 and a fifty-two week high of $38.67.

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

Insider Activity at Viasat

In other news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total value of $3,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 197,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,111,991. The trade was a 33.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in Viasat by 233.4% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 2,224 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its position in Viasat by 74.7% in the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 3,836 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 1,640 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in Viasat in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Viasat in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its position in Viasat by 2,412.3% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,728 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Viasat Company Profile

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.