Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Up 6.5% – Here’s What Happened

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) was up 6.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $11.43 and last traded at $11.47. Approximately 2,914,832 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 4,787,993 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.77.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on VSAT shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays dropped 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. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Viasat Trading Up 7.3 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.39. The stock has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.71 and a beta of 1.34. 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 (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. Viasat’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($6.16) EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Viasat by 6.6% in 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 period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position 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 buying an additional 969,942 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,508,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,950,000 after buying an additional 122,472 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Viasat by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,523,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,190,000 after buying an additional 115,909 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 1,145.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after buying an additional 750,904 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.