Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Up 4.7%

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) rose 4.7% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $16.04 and last traded at $15.87. Approximately 351,659 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 1,604,509 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.16.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VSAT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays cut their price target on Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Viasat from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Viasat from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.17.

Viasat Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 3.08 and a quick ratio of 2.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.95 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $17.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.80.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.42) by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 19.76% and a negative net margin of 22.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.83) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Viasat in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 11,033.3% in the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,670 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,655 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Viasat during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Viasat during the second quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, Tidemark LLC bought a new stake in Viasat in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $72,000. 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.