Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) Short Interest Up 21.3% in March

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,620,000 shares, an increase of 21.3% from the March 15th total of 9,580,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 10.6 days.

Institutional Trading of Viasat

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VSAT. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Viasat during the second quarter worth $36,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Viasat by 303.6% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,009 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the second quarter valued at about $48,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viasat in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of Viasat by 29.2% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,313 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. 86.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Viasat Price Performance

VSAT stock opened at $16.29 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.04 billion, a PE ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average is $18.52 and its 200-day moving average is $20.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 2.46. Viasat has a 1 year low of $15.02 and a 1 year high of $47.35.

Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.99) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by ($0.85). The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.12 billion. Viasat had a return on equity of 4.52% and a net margin of 6.01%. Equities research analysts expect that Viasat will post -1.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays decreased their price target on Viasat from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.17.

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.