Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) CEO Sells $7,018,000.00 in Stock

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) CEO Mark Dankberg sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.09, for a total transaction of $7,018,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,534,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,862,904.37. This trade represents a 11.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of VSAT traded down $2.23 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $32.17. 1,647,660 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,327,508. The company has a market cap of $4.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.04 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $35.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.61. Viasat Inc. has a 52-week low of $7.36 and a 52-week high of $43.59.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, November 8th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.20. Viasat had a negative net margin of 11.40% and a negative return on equity of 3.65%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.23) EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Viasat by 8.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,962,958 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $497,015,000 after acquiring an additional 1,289,024 shares in the last quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. OCO Capital Partners L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $87,600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250,000 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 15.8% in the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 5,845,100 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $85,338,000 after purchasing an additional 796,349 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its position in shares of Viasat by 6.8% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Viasat by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,713,581 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $108,808,000 after buying an additional 1,033,194 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on VSAT shares. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 price target (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Viasat from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.75.

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.