Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday morning.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Viavi Solutions from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Viavi Solutions from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $13.00 price target (up from $12.00) on shares of Viavi Solutions in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC raised Viavi Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Viavi Solutions from $10.60 to $11.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.72.

Viavi Solutions Price Performance

Shares of VIAV stock opened at $11.13 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $11.12 and its 200 day moving average is $10.11. Viavi Solutions has a 1-year low of $6.60 and a 1-year high of $12.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 3.55 and a quick ratio of 3.18. The company has a market cap of $2.47 billion, a P/E ratio of -61.83 and a beta of 0.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Luke M. Scrivanich sold 14,323 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.24, for a total transaction of $160,990.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 55,877 shares in the company, valued at $628,057.48. The trade was a 20.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP James L. Veler, Jr. sold 13,807 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.86, for a total value of $149,944.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 67,164 shares of company stock valued at $711,422. 1.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viavi Solutions

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Viavi Solutions in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,059,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Viavi Solutions by 117.5% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 59,492 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $601,000 after purchasing an additional 32,145 shares in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Viavi Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at $188,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Viavi Solutions by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 509,746 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,148,000 after buying an additional 107,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its position in Viavi Solutions by 423.7% during the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,435,678 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $34,700,000 after buying an additional 2,779,615 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.54% of the company’s stock.

About Viavi Solutions

Viavi Solutions, Inc engages in the provision of network test, monitoring, and assurance solutions for communications service providers, enterprises, network equipment manufacturers, government and avionics. It operates through the following segments: Network Enablement, Service Enablement, and Optical Security and Performance.