Bank of New York Mellon Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 649,949 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 19,505 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.51% of Viasat worth $5,531,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in Viasat by 6.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after acquiring an additional 276,376 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position in Viasat by 28.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 969,942 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Viasat by 5.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,508,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $29,950,000 after acquiring an additional 122,472 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Viasat by 8.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,523,465 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,190,000 after acquiring an additional 115,909 shares during the last quarter. Finally, South Dakota Investment Council raised its position in Viasat by 98.5% during the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 675,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,747,000 after acquiring an additional 335,082 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 3,750,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total value of $33,750,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 4,795,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,158,006. This represents a 43.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viasat from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of Viasat in a research note on Friday, January 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.57.

Viasat Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VSAT opened at $9.85 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.93 and a beta of 1.38. Viasat, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $6.69 and a fifty-two week high of $26.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $9.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.25.

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

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.