Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $19.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 113.72% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VSAT opened at $8.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.85 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.42. Viasat has a twelve month low of $6.69 and a twelve month high of $26.70.

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 the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($6.16) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Viasat will post -2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 $3,226,732.71. This trade represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VSAT. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viasat by 38.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 47,484 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 13,302 shares during the period. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new position in Viasat during the fourth quarter valued at $105,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 26,324 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after buying an additional 4,922 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Viasat by 115.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 282,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,373,000 after buying an additional 151,590 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Viasat by 6.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 400,320 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,780,000 after purchasing an additional 24,889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.