Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Shares Down 3.7% - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• Viasat's stock price decreased by 3.7% on Friday, trading at $30.72 after hitting a low of $30.65 and experiencing a significant decrease in trading volume.
• Analysts have mixed views on Viasat, with ratings ranging from strong sell to buy, and an average target price of $21.13.
• The company recently reported a quarterly EPS of $0.17, surpassing expectations, with revenue increasing by 4% year-over-year to $1.17 billion.

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT - Get Free Report) shares dropped 3.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $30.65 and last traded at $30.72. Approximately 264,864 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 93% from the average daily volume of 3,658,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.91.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSAT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a "hold" rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Viasat from $10.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, B. Riley cut their price objective on shares of Viasat from $56.00 to $52.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $21.13.

Viasat Stock Up 0.6%

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 firm's 50-day moving average is $23.79 and its 200 day moving average is $15.06. The stock has a market cap of $4.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.95 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Insider Transactions at Viasat

In other Viasat news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $3,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 197,161 shares in the company, valued at $6,111,991. The trade was a 33.65% 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. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,646,644 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $152,618,000 after purchasing an additional 872,784 shares during the period. OCO Capital Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 60.0% in the second quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $87,600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250,000 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 15.8% in the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,845,100 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $85,338,000 after purchasing an additional 796,349 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.8% in the second quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 5,541,636 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $80,908,000 after purchasing an additional 351,404 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,128,338 shares during the period. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.