Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $8.02, but opened at $7.82. Viasat shares last traded at $7.63, with a volume of 442,762 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on VSAT shares. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 20th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.54. 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 market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.54 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($6.16) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viasat

In other news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction 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 completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 28.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 969,942 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 1,145.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after acquiring an additional 750,904 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after acquiring an additional 276,376 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 63.6% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,181,000 after acquiring an additional 250,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth $1,980,000. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.