Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $8.33, but opened at $9.07. Viasat shares last traded at $9.38, with a volume of 1,598,701 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VSAT. 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 research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 31st. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.33.

Viasat Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.02 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $14.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 8.73% and a negative return on equity of 7.58%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($6.16) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 2.9% in the first 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 during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in Viasat during the 1st quarter worth about $348,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in Viasat by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 70,622 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 13,304 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Viasat by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 60,183 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 3,712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Viasat during the 2nd quarter worth about $293,000. 86.05% of the stock is 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.