Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Stock Price Up 5.9% – Time to Buy?

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) rose 5.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $9.35 and last traded at $9.31. Approximately 660,674 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 1,961,802 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.79.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 31st. Barclays cut their target price on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Up 0.1 %

The stock has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of -2.94 and a beta of 1.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $9.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

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

Insider Transactions at Viasat

In other news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value of $32,824.44. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,226,732.71. This trade represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,419,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,766,000 after acquiring an additional 969,942 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Viasat by 1,145.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after purchasing an additional 750,904 shares during the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,531,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after buying an additional 276,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Viasat by 63.6% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,181,000 after buying an additional 250,389 shares during the period. 86.05% of the stock is currently 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.