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Investing.com - JPMorgan has more than doubled its price target on Viasat (NASDAQ:VSAT) to $23.00 from $10.00 while maintaining a Neutral rating following the company’s strong fiscal first-quarter 2026 results. The stock has shown remarkable momentum, with InvestingPro data showing a 150% year-to-date return and current market capitalization of $2.86 billion. Analyst targets now range from $10 to $52, reflecting diverse views on the company’s prospects.
The focus remains on Viasat’s strategic review of its Defense and Aerospace Technologies (DAT) assets, particularly after recent activist investor attention. While JPMorgan believes Viasat could unlock additional value through monetization of all or part of its DAT segment, the firm considers a spin or separation unlikely in the near term.
On the earnings call, Viasat CFO Gary Chase reiterated the company’s long-term net leverage goal of below 3x, with the first priority being repayment of its $300 million Inmarsat loan. This balance sheet focus makes a business separation unlikely as the company appears to prefer debt reduction to improve cash flow.
CEO Mark Dankberg noted that synergies across business units may be changing, highlighting that encryption (cybersecurity) and space are converging with potential benefits to keeping them together. JPMorgan now believes Viasat is unlikely to monetize its encryption business but may sell non-synergistic assets like Trellisware, of which it owns 60%.
The new price target reflects 10x 2026 DAT segment EBITDA and 3.8x 2026 Communications Services segment EBITDA, incorporating benefits from the Ligado settlement. JPMorgan agrees with recent activist claims that the market has undervalued DAT assets and that competitive fears in Communications Services are overblown.
In other recent news, ViaSat Inc. reported its first-quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings, revealing a revenue of $1.17 billion. This figure surpassed analysts’ forecasts, which had projected revenue at $1.13 billion. Despite the company posting a net loss, the revenue growth highlighted ViaSat’s strategic advancements. These developments have been noted positively by investors. Additionally, the earnings report led to a 5.08% increase in the company’s stock price during after-hours trading. Analysts have taken note of the company’s performance, though no specific upgrades or downgrades have been reported in the recent news. These recent developments reflect ViaSat’s ongoing efforts in its business operations.
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