Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) SVP Robert James Blair Sells 2,269 Shares

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) SVP Robert James Blair sold 2,269 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.61, for a total value of $80,799.09. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 68,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,439,961.59. The trade was a 3.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Viasat Stock Performance

Shares of VSAT stock traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $34.92. 2,465,369 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,468,569. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $34.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.14. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.56 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.87. Viasat Inc. has a 12-month low of $6.69 and a 12-month high of $43.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.20. Viasat had a negative net margin of 13.11% and a negative return on equity of 6.37%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.23) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in Viasat by 29.8% during the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 274,250 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,858,000 after acquiring an additional 63,020 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in Viasat by 746.4% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 13,567 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $198,000 after purchasing an additional 11,964 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its position in Viasat by 11.4% during the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 16,673 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 6.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,646,644 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $152,618,000 after purchasing an additional 872,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in Viasat by 38.3% during the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 38,294 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 10,600 shares during the period. 86.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.