Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Stock Price

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) had its target price increased by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $25.00 to $45.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 21.69% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viasat from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued 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 report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial raised Viasat from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.75.

Viasat Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of VSAT opened at $36.98 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.11. The company has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.00 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.01. Viasat has a 52-week low of $6.69 and a 52-week high of $43.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.20. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 6.37% and a negative net margin of 13.11%.The company had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.23) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Viasat will post -0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total value of $3,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 197,161 shares in the company, valued at $6,111,991. This represents a 33.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Long Focus Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the 1st quarter worth $24,695,000. OCO Capital Partners L.P. increased its holdings in Viasat by 60.0% in the second quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $87,600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250,000 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Viasat in the first quarter valued at about $20,593,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 12,255.3% during the third quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,404,800 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $41,161,000 after buying an additional 1,393,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Viasat by 96.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,680,387 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,134,000 after buying an additional 1,318,524 shares during the period. 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.