Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Has $49.97 Million Position in Viasat Inc. $VSAT

Key Points

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has reduced its stake in Viasat Inc. by 43.9%, selling 3,750,000 shares during the first quarter, now owning 3.71% of the company.
• Viasat reported earnings of $0.17 per share, exceeding analyst expectations of ($0.15), with revenue reaching $1.17 billion for the quarter.
• Institutional investors currently hold approximately 86.05% of Viasat's stock, with various hedge funds adjusting their positions in the company recently.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reduced its position in Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT - Free Report) by 43.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,795,334 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 3,750,000 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 3.71% of Viasat worth $49,967,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Viasat during the first quarter valued at approximately $20,593,000. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 538.7% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 1,136,675 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $9,673,000 after purchasing an additional 958,706 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,646,644 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $152,618,000 after buying an additional 872,784 shares in the last quarter. Tenzing Global Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat during the 4th quarter worth $7,170,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Viasat by 149.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,365,194 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $11,618,000 after buying an additional 818,301 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Viasat from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, B. Riley cut their price objective on Viasat from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viasat has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $21.13.

Viasat Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ VSAT traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $29.48. The stock had a trading volume of 2,479,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,658,168. The company's 50 day moving average price is $21.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.11. Viasat Inc. has a twelve month low of $6.69 and a twelve month high of $33.85. The firm has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.37 and a beta of 1.27.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Viasat had a negative net margin of 13.11% and a negative return on equity of 6.37%. Viasat's quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 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.