Insider Selling: Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) CAO Sells 51,480 Shares of Stock

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) CAO Shawn Lynn Duffy sold 51,480 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.38, for a total transaction of $1,872,842.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,021 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,043.98. The trade was a 89.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of VSAT traded down $0.96 on Tuesday, hitting $34.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,236,343 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,334,506. The company has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a PE ratio of -8.60 and a beta of 1.37. Viasat Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $7.36 and a fifty-two week high of $43.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 3.65% and a negative net margin of 11.40%.The business’s revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.23) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Viasat from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $23.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new position in Viasat during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Viasat by 6,815.4% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 899 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in Viasat in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Viasat by 7,380.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,244 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,214 shares during the period. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.