New York State Teachers Retirement System Purchases 1,400 Shares of Viasat Inc. $VSAT

New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 78,623 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.06% of Viasat worth $1,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Viasat by 6.3% during the first 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 during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in Viasat by 2.9% during the first quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 5,190,232 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $53,913,000 after purchasing an additional 145,868 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Viasat by 64.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,866,242 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128,338 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Viasat by 26.4% during the first 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 during the period. Finally, Long Focus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Viasat during the first quarter valued at approximately $24,695,000. 86.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Viasat news, Director Richard A. Baldridge sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $3,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 197,161 shares in the company, valued at $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 through the SEC website. 2.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VSAT. Wall Street Zen upgraded Viasat from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Viasat from $16.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $23.00 price target (up from $10.00) on shares of Viasat in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Viasat in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.29.

Viasat Trading Down 5.7%

VSAT opened at $34.58 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $31.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.07. The company has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.48 and a beta of 1.21. Viasat Inc. has a 52 week low of $6.69 and a 52 week high of $38.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Viasat had a negative return on equity of 6.37% and a negative net margin of 13.11%.Viasat’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. Analysts forecast that Viasat Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share for the current 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.