Swiss National Bank Acquires 21,300 Shares of Viasat Inc. $VSAT

Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 197,224 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,300 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.15% of Viasat worth $2,879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter worth $43,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Viasat by 233.4% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management increased its stake in Viasat by 74.7% during the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 3,836 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Viasat by 331.3% in the second quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 4,779 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 3,671 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its holdings in Viasat by 2,412.3% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,728 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares during the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In other Viasat news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director owned 197,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,111,991. This trade represents a 33.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Benjamin Edward Palmer sold 2,780 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.06, for a total transaction of $100,246.80. Following the transaction, the insider directly 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 105,049 shares of company stock worth $3,281,046. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Viasat from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.75.

Viasat Price Performance

Viasat stock opened at $35.14 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.75 billion, a PE ratio of -8.79 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $34.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.90. Viasat Inc. has a 12-month low of $7.36 and a 12-month high of $43.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 3.65% and a negative net margin of 11.40%.Viasat’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 EPS for the current year.

Viasat 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.