American Century Companies Inc. Increases Position in Viasat Inc. $VSAT

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,361,863 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 132,747 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.05% of Viasat worth $14,191,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viasat by 233.4% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Viasat in the 1st quarter valued at about $63,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Viasat by 46.4% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,367 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares during the last quarter. Wexford Capital LP acquired a new position in Viasat in the 4th quarter valued at about $93,000. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Viasat in the 4th quarter valued at about $100,000. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on VSAT. B. Riley decreased their target price on shares of Viasat from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. William Blair upgraded shares of Viasat from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viasat currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.13.

Viasat Price Performance

Viasat stock opened at $28.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 billion, a PE ratio of -6.11 and a beta of 1.20. Viasat Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.69 and a 52-week high of $28.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.65.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 13.11% and a negative return on equity of 6.37%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.