Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Trading Down 4% After Analyst Downgrade

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) fell 4% on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $28.00 to $26.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Viasat traded as low as $13.44 and last traded at $13.46. 196,288 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 1,242,490 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.02.

VSAT has been the topic of several other reports. Bank of America raised their target price on Viasat from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Viasat from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Viasat from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Viasat in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Viasat from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Viasat by 40.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,897,337 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $219,625,000 after buying an additional 3,417,316 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Viasat during the fourth quarter worth about $17,511,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Viasat by 68.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,133,429 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $20,923,000 after buying an additional 458,959 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Viasat during the first quarter worth about $5,936,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its position in Viasat by 1,752.3% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 159,355 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,883,000 after buying an additional 150,752 shares in the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viasat Trading Down 5.8 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.50 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $16.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.86. The company has a quick ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 21st. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.72) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 19.76% and a negative net margin of 24.95%. Research analysts predict that Viasat, Inc. will post -1.48 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.