Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Trading Down 6.2% After Analyst Downgrade

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) traded down 6.2% during mid-day trading on Friday after Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on the stock from $19.00 to $16.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Viasat traded as low as $9.42 and last traded at $9.45. 679,458 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 2,795,708 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.08.

VSAT has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Viasat from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen raised Viasat from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.14.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,229,116 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,460,000 after purchasing an additional 256,389 shares during the period. Everett Harris & Co. CA bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,111,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 413,122 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 12,802 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,773,860 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $117,216,000 after purchasing an additional 194,006 shares during the period. Finally, Mariner LLC bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the fourth quarter worth approximately $682,000. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Viasat Trading Down 9.2%

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.72 and a beta of 1.01. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.60.

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.