State Street Corp Buys 276,376 Shares of Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

State Street Corp boosted its position in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 6.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 276,376 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned approximately 3.46% of Viasat worth $53,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VSAT. Centiva Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 3rd quarter worth about $328,000. Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $160,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Viasat during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. PDT Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Viasat in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,980,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Viasat by 123.3% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 153,382 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,831,000 after buying an additional 84,682 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on VSAT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Viasat from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 31st. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Bank of America cut their target price on Viasat from $31.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total transaction of $32,824.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at $3,226,732.71. The trade was a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Viasat Stock Up 0.9 %

VSAT opened at $8.58 on Friday. Viasat, Inc. has a 12 month low of $6.69 and a 12 month high of $29.11. The company has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of -2.75 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average of $9.46 and a 200 day moving average of $13.24.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). Viasat had a negative return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 8.73%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($6.16) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.38 EPS for the current 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.