Bank of America Cuts Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Price Target to $19.00

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) had its price target trimmed by Bank of America from $31.00 to $19.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Viasat from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Viasat from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Viasat from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $22.33.

Viasat Price Performance

VSAT stock opened at $12.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Viasat has a one year low of $11.76 and a one year high of $29.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a PE ratio of -1.45 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $16.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.38.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.42) by $0.16. Viasat had a negative net margin of 22.13% and a negative return on equity of 19.76%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.83) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Viasat will post -1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viasat

In other Viasat news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 2,811,442 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.90, for a total transaction of $55,947,695.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,545,334 shares in the company, valued at $170,052,146.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VSAT. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 63.6% in the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,181,000 after acquiring an additional 250,389 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 1.1% in the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,449,281 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,806,000 after acquiring an additional 36,681 shares during the period. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at approximately $319,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.