102,600 Shares in Viavi Solutions Inc. $VIAV Bought by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Key Points

• Louisiana State Employees Retirement System disclosed a new first-quarter stake in Viavi Solutions, buying 102,600 shares valued at about $3.4 million.
• Wall Street sentiment on VIAV is mostly positive, with several firms raising price targets; MarketBeat says the stock currently has a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average target of $42.75.
• Viavi’s latest earnings beat expectations, as quarterly EPS of $0.27 topped estimates and revenue rose 42.8% year over year to $406.8 million.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAV - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 102,600 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,415,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of VIAV. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Viavi Solutions by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 183,320 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,051,000 after buying an additional 18,910 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viavi Solutions by 110.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 33,663 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 17,673 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Viavi Solutions by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 131,061 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,467,000 after acquiring an additional 5,775 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Viavi Solutions by 205.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 476,767 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $5,335,000 after acquiring an additional 320,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Services Automobile Association bought a new stake in Viavi Solutions in the first quarter valued at approximately $165,000. 95.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VIAV has been the subject of several analyst reports. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Viavi Solutions from $25.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Viavi Solutions from $25.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Viavi Solutions from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Viavi Solutions from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Viavi Solutions from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viavi Solutions presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.75.

Viavi Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of VIAV stock opened at $47.63 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -198.45 and a beta of 1.18. Viavi Solutions Inc. has a 52 week low of $9.61 and a 52 week high of $60.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $49.40 and a 200-day moving average of $34.29.

Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ:VIAV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $406.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $393.80 million. Viavi Solutions had a negative net margin of 4.03% and a positive return on equity of 16.80%. Viavi Solutions's quarterly revenue was up 42.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Viavi Solutions has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.290-0.310 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Viavi Solutions Inc. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Doug Gilstrap sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total transaction of $550,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 55,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,067,130. This represents a 15.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Luke M. Scrivanich sold 10,693 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $566,729.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 39,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,082,211. This represents a 21.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 450,369 shares of company stock worth $23,789,119 over the last 90 days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Viavi Solutions Profile

Viavi Solutions Inc is a provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions for communications service providers, cable operators, enterprises and government agencies. The company offers an extensive portfolio of fiber optic and copper cable test and measurement instruments, wireless network testing equipment and network performance monitoring software. Its products are designed to support the deployment, maintenance and optimization of high-speed broadband, 5G wireless, data center and enterprise networks.

Viavi's product offerings are organized into two primary segments: Network & Service Enablement and Optical Security & Performance.

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