Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Down 4.1%

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)’s share price traded down 4.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $12.70 and last traded at $13.02. 314,192 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 1,656,119 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.57.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on VSAT shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday, June 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Viasat from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.83.

Viasat Stock Down 2.2 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $17.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.46 and a beta of 1.35. 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 (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.83) earnings per share. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.34 earnings per share 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Viasat by 1,145.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after buying an additional 750,904 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Viasat in the fourth quarter valued at about $17,511,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,711,000 after purchasing an additional 348,166 shares during the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Viasat during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $5,936,000. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in Viasat during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,531,000. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.