Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 37,400 Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 37,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,045,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VSAT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,897,337 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $219,625,000 after acquiring an additional 3,417,316 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 68.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,133,429 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $20,923,000 after acquiring an additional 458,959 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 104.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 283,304 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,230,000 after acquiring an additional 144,910 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 696.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 121,311 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,239,000 after acquiring an additional 106,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 3rd quarter worth $1,292,000. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Barclays cut their target price on Viasat from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.17.

Viasat Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VSAT opened at $16.12 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $17.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.33. Viasat, Inc. has a 12-month low of $15.02 and a 12-month high of $47.35.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.99) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.85). The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. Viasat had a net margin of 6.01% and a return on equity of 4.52%. Sell-side analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.43 EPS for the current year.

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.