M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Buys Shares of 12,370 Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. bought a new position in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 12,370 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $105,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 26,324 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,922 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 115.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 282,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,373,000 after buying an additional 151,590 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 400,320 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,780,000 after buying an additional 24,889 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,508,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,950,000 after acquiring an additional 122,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 28.1% in the third 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays lowered their price target on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Performance

VSAT opened at $8.89 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $8.82 and a 200-day moving average of $12.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.44. Viasat, Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.69 and a 52-week high of $26.70. The company has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of -2.85 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($6.16) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.