Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $8.33, but opened at $9.07. Viasat shares last traded at $9.38, with a volume of 1,598,701 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on VSAT shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays decreased their target price on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. 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 report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a 50-day moving average of $10.51 and a 200-day moving average of $14.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.02 and a beta of 1.37.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($6.16) earnings per share. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its position 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 position in 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. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 348,166 shares during the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in Viasat during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,531,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 276,376 shares in the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.