New York State Common Retirement Fund Lowers Holdings in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 30.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,694 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 12,100 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Viasat were worth $236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new stake in Viasat in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Viasat in the third quarter valued at $28,000. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 63.7% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC boosted its holdings in Viasat by 274.4% during the fourth quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 10,259 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 7,519 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSAT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Viasat in a research report on Friday, January 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Viasat from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.57.

Viasat Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VSAT opened at $9.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a PE ratio of -2.87 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.66. Viasat, Inc. has a 1-year low of $6.69 and a 1-year high of $26.70.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by ($0.70). Viasat had a negative net margin of 9.49% and a negative return on equity of 8.37%. On average, equities analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In related news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 3,750,000 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total value of $33,750,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 4,795,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,158,006. This trade represents a 43.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the company’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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 350,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,226,732.71. This represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.