Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Up 7.9% – Time to Buy?

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) rose 7.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $9.90 and last traded at $9.80. Approximately 446,861 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 2,542,371 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.08.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viasat has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Down 6.9 %

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’s 50-day moving average price is $9.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $12.72. The company has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.88 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) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 8.73%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($6.16) EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In other Viasat news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VSAT. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in 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 boosted its holdings in Viasat by 1,145.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after purchasing an additional 750,904 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 276,376 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Viasat by 63.6% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,181,000 after buying an additional 250,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,980,000. 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.