Morgan Stanley Reiterates Underweight Rating for Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV)

Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV)‘s stock had its “underweight” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Morgan Stanley in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $9.50 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $8.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 14.87% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of Viavi Solutions from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Viavi Solutions in a research note on Monday. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Viavi Solutions in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $10.60 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Viavi Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on shares of Viavi Solutions from $8.25 to $10.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.44.

Viavi Solutions Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VIAV opened at $11.16 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $9.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.57. The company has a quick ratio of 3.31, a current ratio of 3.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Viavi Solutions has a 12-month low of $6.60 and a 12-month high of $11.49. The company has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -65.65 and a beta of 0.92.

Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The communications equipment provider reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06. Viavi Solutions had a negative net margin of 3.78% and a positive return on equity of 2.22%. The business had revenue of $238.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.09 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.05 earnings per share. Viavi Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Viavi Solutions will post 0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viavi Solutions

In other Viavi Solutions news, Director Masood Jabbar sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.17, for a total transaction of $137,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 213,514 shares in the company, valued at $1,957,923.38. This represents a 6.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Luke M. Scrivanich sold 2,802 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.43, for a total transaction of $29,224.86. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 54,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,612.31. This trade represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,831 shares of company stock worth $345,712 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viavi Solutions

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Viavi Solutions in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in Viavi Solutions in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Quarry LP raised its position in Viavi Solutions by 419.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 7,229 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 5,838 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Viavi Solutions in the second quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its position in Viavi Solutions by 53.0% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,388 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 3,252 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.54% of the company’s stock.

Viavi Solutions Company Profile

Viavi Solutions Inc provides network test, monitoring, and assurance solutions for communications service providers, hyperscalers, network equipment manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, government, and avionics customers in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.