Viasat's (VSAT) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT - Free Report) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $19.00 target price on the communications equipment provider's stock.

Separately, Barclays lowered their target price on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $18.33.

Viasat Stock Performance

NASDAQ VSAT traded up $2.92 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,163,736 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,705,534. Viasat has a 52 week low of $6.69 and a 52 week high of $26.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $8.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.42. The firm has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($6.16) earnings per share. Viasat's revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Viasat will post -2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Viasat

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.20% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 38.9% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 47,484 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $404,000 after buying an additional 13,302 shares during the period. M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new stake in Viasat in the fourth quarter worth $105,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Viasat by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 26,324 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,922 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 115.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 282,475 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $3,373,000 after purchasing an additional 151,590 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 400,320 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $4,780,000 after purchasing an additional 24,889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.05% of the company's stock.

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.