Needham & Company LLC Lowers Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Price Target to $19.00

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) had its price target dropped by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $28.00 to $19.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 71.79% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Viasat from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.83.

Viasat Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of Viasat stock opened at $11.06 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Viasat has a twelve month low of $10.40 and a twelve month high of $29.11. The stock has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.35 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $14.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.42) by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 22.13% and a negative return on equity of 19.76%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.83) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Viasat will post -1.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 2,811,442 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.90, for a total transaction of $55,947,695.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,545,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $170,052,146.60. This represents a 0.00 % 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 the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 176.3% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 1,772 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viasat during the second quarter valued at approximately $81,000. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by 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.