Teacher Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stock Holdings in Viasat Inc. $VSAT

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,596 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,460 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Viasat were worth $228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Viasat by 233.4% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Viasat by 74.7% during the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 3,836 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Viasat in the 2nd quarter worth about $43,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 2,412.3% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,728 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viasat in the 1st quarter valued at $63,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 197,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,111,991. This represents a 33.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VSAT opened at $38.11 on Wednesday. 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 1-year low of $6.69 and a 1-year high of $43.59. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $33.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.12 billion, a PE ratio of -8.25 and a beta of 1.24.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 13.11% and a negative return on equity of 6.37%. Viasat’s revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VSAT. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Viasat from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 price target (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.75.

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.