Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Short Interest Update

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 19,020,000 shares, a growth of 19.5% from the October 15th total of 15,910,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,340,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 28.1% in 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 buying an additional 969,942 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Viasat by 1,145.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,369,000 after purchasing an additional 750,904 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Viasat by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $226,711,000 after buying an additional 348,166 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in Viasat during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,531,000. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Viasat by 6.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after buying an additional 276,376 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Viasat Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VSAT opened at $7.40 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.58. Viasat has a fifty-two week low of $7.30 and a fifty-two week high of $29.11. 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 firm has a market cap of $950.09 million, a PE ratio of -2.37 and a beta of 1.37.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). Viasat had a negative return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 8.73%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($6.16) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Viasat will post -2.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSAT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.83.

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.