Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Gap Up to $14.77

Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $14.77, but opened at $15.49. Viasat shares last traded at $15.06, with a volume of 175,623 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VSAT. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Viasat from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Viasat from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday, June 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Viasat presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.17.

Viasat Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of -1.68 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 21st. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.72) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.12). Viasat had a negative return on equity of 19.76% and a negative net margin of 24.95%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.46 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viasat

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 60,183 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after buying an additional 3,712 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 23.2% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 70,622 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,277,000 after buying an additional 13,304 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Viasat in the first quarter worth $348,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its position in Viasat by 1,752.3% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 159,355 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,883,000 after purchasing an additional 150,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Viasat by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,532,375 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $226,711,000 after purchasing an additional 348,166 shares during 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.