Public Sector Pension Investment Board Grows Stock Position in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 6.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 165,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,373 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned 0.13% of Viasat worth $2,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Viasat during the fourth quarter valued at about $17,511,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $226,711,000 after buying an additional 348,166 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Viasat in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $5,936,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Viasat during the second quarter worth $3,531,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Viasat by 25.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 796,368 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,114,000 after purchasing an additional 162,804 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Viasat Stock Up 2.0 %

VSAT opened at $12.18 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.15. Viasat, Inc. has a 52 week low of $11.76 and a 52 week high of $29.11. The company has a quick ratio of 2.78, a current ratio of 3.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of -1.39 and a beta of 1.35.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.42) by $0.16. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 19.76% and a negative net margin of 22.13%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.83) EPS. Viasat’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VSAT shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday, June 17th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Viasat from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.33.

Insider Transactions at Viasat

In related news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 2,811,442 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.90, for a total value of $55,947,695.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,545,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $170,052,146.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.10% 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.