Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Trading 8.1% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)’s stock price traded up 8.1% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $7.58 and last traded at $7.49. 1,298,690 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 1,815,052 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.93.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on VSAT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com cut Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Viasat has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.33.

Viasat Trading Up 25.8 %

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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.40 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.38.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($6.16) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in shares of Viasat by 28.1% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,419,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,766,000 after purchasing an additional 969,942 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Viasat by 1,145.1% in the second 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. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,711,000 after acquiring an additional 348,166 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new stake in Viasat in the 2nd quarter worth $3,531,000. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $53,083,000 after buying an additional 276,376 shares during the period. 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.