Millennium Management LLC Buys 750,904 Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT - Free Report) by 1,145.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 750,904 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC owned approximately 0.65% of Viasat worth $10,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Viasat by 30.5% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 236,694 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,959,000 after acquiring an additional 55,377 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Viasat during the second quarter worth about $61,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Viasat by 6.7% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 165,400 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,101,000 after acquiring an additional 10,373 shares in the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VSAT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Viasat from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Viasat from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 31st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $22.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viasat

In other Viasat news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 2,811,442 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.90, for a total transaction of $55,947,695.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,545,334 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $170,052,146.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Viasat Stock Performance

Shares of VSAT traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $10.91. 1,204,865 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,715,554. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a current ratio of 3.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $15.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.87. Viasat, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.87 and a 1 year high of $29.11. The stock has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.24 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.42) by $0.16. Viasat had a negative net margin of 22.13% and a negative return on equity of 19.76%. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.83) earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.43 earnings per share 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.