Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Up 6.5% – Here’s What Happened

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) shot up 6.5% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $11.43 and last traded at $11.47. 2,914,832 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 4,787,993 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.77.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Viasat in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a PE ratio of -3.71 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.39.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 8.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($6.16) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VSAT. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new stake in Viasat during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Viasat during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Viasat by 63.7% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Viasat by 176.3% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Viasat during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $61,000. 86.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.