Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Barclays

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) was downgraded by Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $23.00 price target on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $10.00. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential downside of 25.52% from the company’s previous close.

VSAT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viasat from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.29.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VSAT opened at $30.88 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $27.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.70. Viasat has a 12 month low of $6.69 and a 12 month high of $34.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.68 and a beta of 1.21.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.32. The firm 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%. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Viasat will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $3,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 197,161 shares in the company, valued at $6,111,991. The trade was a 33.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 2,224 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 74.7% in the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 3,836 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at about $43,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its holdings 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 valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

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.