Viasat’s (VSAT) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $19.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Separately, Barclays reduced their price objective 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, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.33.

Viasat Trading Up 7.3 %

Shares of VSAT stock opened at $11.56 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.71 and a beta of 1.34. Viasat has a 1 year low of $6.69 and a 1 year high of $26.70. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.39.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by ($0.53). Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($6.16) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Viasat will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total transaction of $32,824.44. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,226,732.71. The trade was a 1.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. National Bank of Canada FI bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in Viasat by 63.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 176.3% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the second quarter worth about $61,000. 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.