Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

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

Separately, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

VSAT opened at $11.81 on Tuesday. Viasat has a one year low of $6.69 and a one year high of $26.70. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $8.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($6.16) earnings per share. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Viasat 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 stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VSAT. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Viasat by 7.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 460,602 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,850,000 after purchasing an additional 31,991 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 58.7% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 63,464 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $808,000 after acquiring an additional 23,469 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 112.4% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 21,829 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 11,554 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 30.0% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 19,270 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $245,000 after acquiring an additional 4,446 shares during the period. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 31.5% during the second quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 32,766 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $416,000 after acquiring an additional 7,850 shares during the period. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.