Voleon Capital Management LP Increases Holdings in Viasat Inc. $VSAT

Key Points

• Voleon Capital Management LP increased its stake in Viasat Inc. by 117.2%, acquiring an additional 21,853 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to 40,492 shares valued at $422,000.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Viasat, with price targets ranging from $10.00 to $56.00; currently, the stock has an average target price of $21.13 and an average rating of "Hold."
• Viasat's recent earnings report showed a profit of $0.17 per share, surpassing estimates, with revenues increasing by 4.0% year-over-year to $1.17 billion.

Voleon Capital Management LP boosted its position in Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT - Free Report) by 117.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,492 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 21,853 shares during the period. Voleon Capital Management LP's holdings in Viasat were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 64.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,866,242 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $29,866,000 after buying an additional 1,128,338 shares during the period. Tenzing Global Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 12.8% in the first quarter. Tenzing Global Management LLC now owns 950,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $9,899,000 after buying an additional 107,500 shares during the period. Scientech Research LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the first quarter valued at about $798,000. PharVision Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the first quarter valued at about $176,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viasat by 673.7% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,386,089 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $14,443,000 after buying an additional 1,206,935 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company's stock.

Viasat Stock Down 4.3%

Shares of VSAT stock traded down $1.36 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $30.55. The company had a trading volume of 2,872,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,936,346. Viasat Inc. has a 12 month low of $6.69 and a 12 month high of $33.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 2.11 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.69. The company has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.61 and a beta of 1.27.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.32. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 6.37% and a negative net margin of 13.11%.The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.30 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VSAT shares. B. Riley decreased their price target on Viasat from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "hold" rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Viasat from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $21.13.

About Viasat

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.