Viasat’s (VSAT) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $19.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on VSAT. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Viasat in a research note on Friday, January 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.43.

Viasat Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ VSAT opened at $8.98 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average is $9.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.73. The company has a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.67 and a beta of 1.35. Viasat has a 1-year low of $6.69 and a 1-year high of $26.70.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by ($0.70). Viasat had a negative net margin of 9.49% and a negative return on equity of 8.28%. Equities analysts forecast that Viasat will post -2.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Viasat news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total transaction of $32,824.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,226,732.71. The trade was a 1.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 3,750,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total transaction of $33,750,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 4,795,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,158,006. The trade was a 43.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Viasat by 63.7% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 1,021 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of Viasat by 39.0% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 4,473 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Viasat by 75.3% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,950 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 1,267 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Viasat by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 63,656 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $760,000 after buying an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Viasat by 176.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 1,772 shares during the period. 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.