Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) Insider Benjamin Edward Palmer Sells 2,780 Shares

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) insider Benjamin Edward Palmer sold 2,780 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.06, for a total transaction of $100,246.80. Following the transaction, the insider owned 27,831 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,003,585.86. The trade was a 9.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Viasat Trading Up 5.7%

Viasat stock traded up $1.91 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $35.27. The company had a trading volume of 1,736,034 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,473,156. Viasat Inc. has a 12-month low of $6.69 and a 12-month high of $43.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.63 and a beta of 1.24.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.20. Viasat had a negative net margin of 13.11% and a negative return on equity of 6.37%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.23) EPS. Viasat’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in Viasat by 29.8% in the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 274,250 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,858,000 after buying an additional 63,020 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of Viasat by 746.4% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 13,567 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $198,000 after acquiring an additional 11,964 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its position in shares of Viasat by 11.4% during the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 16,673 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $152,618,000 after acquiring an additional 872,784 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Viasat by 38.3% in the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 38,294 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 10,600 shares during the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSAT has been the subject of a number of research reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Viasat from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.75.

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.