M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Makes New Investment in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. purchased a new stake in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 12,370 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $105,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in shares of Viasat by 28.1% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,419,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,766,000 after buying an additional 969,942 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viasat by 1,145.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 816,478 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,369,000 after acquiring an additional 750,904 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $53,083,000 after purchasing an additional 276,376 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Viasat by 63.6% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 644,155 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,181,000 after purchasing an additional 250,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viasat in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,980,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on VSAT. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Viasat from $28.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays reduced their target price on Viasat from $24.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viasat currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.33.

Insider Activity at Viasat

In related news, EVP Mark J. Miller sold 3,564 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.21, for a total value of $32,824.44. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 350,351 shares in the company, valued at $3,226,732.71. This represents a 1.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Viasat Price Performance

Shares of VSAT stock opened at $8.89 on Tuesday. Viasat, Inc. has a 1 year low of $6.69 and a 1 year high of $26.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $8.82 and its 200-day moving average is $12.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.85 and a beta of 1.34.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.53). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 8.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($6.16) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.