Shawn Lynn Duffy Sells 51,480 Shares of Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Stock

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) CAO Shawn Lynn Duffy sold 51,480 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.38, for a total value of $1,872,842.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,021 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,043.98. The trade was a 89.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Viasat Price Performance

VSAT opened at $32.17 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 2.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.04 and a beta of 1.37. Viasat Inc. has a 52-week low of $7.36 and a 52-week high of $43.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.20. Viasat had a negative net margin of 11.40% and a negative return on equity of 3.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.23) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on VSAT shares. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 price target (up from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Viasat from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Viasat from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Long Focus Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Viasat during the first quarter valued at approximately $24,695,000. OCO Capital Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 60.0% in the second quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $87,600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250,000 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the 1st quarter valued at $20,593,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Viasat by 12,255.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,404,800 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $41,161,000 after buying an additional 1,393,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Viasat by 96.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,680,387 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $39,134,000 after buying an additional 1,318,524 shares in the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.