Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $19.00 price objective on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Separately, Barclays decreased their price objective 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 given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Up 32.8 %

Viasat stock opened at $11.81 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79 and a beta of 1.34. Viasat has a 1-year low of $6.69 and a 1-year high of $26.70. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($6.16) EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Viasat will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value of $32,824.44. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,226,732.71. This represents a 1.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. National Bank of Canada FI bought a new stake in Viasat in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Viasat in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Viasat by 63.7% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Viasat by 176.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Viasat in the 2nd quarter valued at about $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

About Viasat

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.