Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.17.

Separately, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Viasat from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 23rd.

Viasat Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VSAT opened at $17.60 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 2.46, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Viasat has a 52-week low of $15.02 and a 52-week high of $47.35.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.99) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by ($0.85). Viasat had a return on equity of 4.52% and a net margin of 6.01%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.12 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Viasat will post -1.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Viasat by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,184,209 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $340,549,000 after purchasing an additional 286,872 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 68.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,133,429 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $20,923,000 after acquiring an additional 458,959 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Viasat by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 920,998 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,742,000 after purchasing an additional 118,902 shares during the last quarter. Cove Street Capital LLC grew its stake in Viasat by 17.7% in the first quarter. Cove Street Capital LLC now owns 766,753 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,871,000 after purchasing an additional 115,224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 672,639 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,417,000 after buying an additional 34,037 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.