Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) CAO Shawn Lynn Duffy Sells 51,480 Shares

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) CAO Shawn Lynn Duffy sold 51,480 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.38, for a total value of $1,872,842.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 6,021 shares in the company, valued at approximately $219,043.98. This represents a 89.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Viasat Stock Performance

VSAT traded down $0.96 on Tuesday, hitting $34.40. The company had a trading volume of 1,236,343 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,334,506. The stock has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.60 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $35.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.43. Viasat Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.36 and a 1-year high of $43.59.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VSAT shares. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 target price (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Viasat from $25.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Viasat from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $23.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viasat

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Viasat by 46.4% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,367 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 2,019 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 233.4% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 2,224 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.3% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 26.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,384,942 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,851,000 after purchasing an additional 497,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 1st quarter worth about $20,593,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

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.