Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $8.89, but opened at $9.67. Viasat shares last traded at $10.71, with a volume of 1,768,715 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on VSAT. Barclays reduced their price target on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a research report on Tuesday. One equities 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of -3.76 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $8.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.42.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($6.16) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viasat news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,226,732.71. The trade was a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted 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 during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 28.1% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,419,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,766,000 after purchasing an additional 969,942 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Viasat by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,508,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,950,000 after purchasing an additional 122,472 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Viasat by 8.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,523,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,190,000 after buying an additional 115,909 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 1,145.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,369,000 after acquiring an additional 750,904 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.