16,660 Shares in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Bought by Norges Bank

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 16,660 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $142,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Viasat by 150.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 706,792 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,015,000 after purchasing an additional 424,317 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Viasat by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,887,537 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,063,000 after buying an additional 364,072 shares during the last quarter. South Dakota Investment Council lifted its position in shares of Viasat by 98.5% in the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 675,378 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,747,000 after buying an additional 335,082 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Viasat by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,445,811 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $53,083,000 after acquiring an additional 276,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Viasat by 26.4% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,229,116 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $10,460,000 after acquiring an additional 256,389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSAT has been the topic of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Viasat from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Viasat from $26.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Viasat in a research report on Friday, January 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price objective for the company. Barclays upped their target price on Viasat from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Viasat from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viasat currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viasat news, insider Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 3,750,000 shares of Viasat stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.00, for a total value of $33,750,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 4,795,334 shares in the company, valued at $43,158,006. The trade was a 43.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Viasat Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ VSAT opened at $8.38 on Friday. Viasat, Inc. has a 52 week low of $6.69 and a 52 week high of $26.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $9.48 and its 200 day moving average is $9.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.49 and a beta of 1.06.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.23) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by ($0.70). Viasat had a negative net margin of 9.49% and a negative return on equity of 8.37%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Viasat, Inc. will post -0.54 earnings per share 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.