Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Stock Price Up 6.4% – Here’s Why

Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) traded up 6.4% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $9.25 and last traded at $9.25. 266,486 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 1,895,250 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.69.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $15.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 31st. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Performance

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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.09.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company earned ($6.16) earnings per share. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Viasat by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $226,711,000 after purchasing an additional 348,166 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its holdings in Viasat by 23.2% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 70,622 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after buying an additional 13,304 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Viasat by 6.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 60,183 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 3,712 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Viasat in the second quarter valued at approximately $293,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Viasat during the 2nd quarter worth $67,000. Institutional investors own 86.05% 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.