BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAV). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 2.77% to 34.36 million shares with purchase of 0.93 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 15.29% valued currently at $375.92 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.57 million to 26.1 million shares. And Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP has lifted its position by 6.44% or 0.55 million shares – to 9.12 million shares.
With over 2.05 million Viavi Solutions Inc. (VIAV) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $10.56 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $21.64 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -27.97% and its price on 03/14/23 gained nearly 3.63%. Currently, there are 225.90M common shares owned by the public and among those 223.80M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 9 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VIAV have a consensus price objective of $13.97. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $16.00 and a low of $12.00. The average price target is 24.41% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 12.0% over that period. But an upside of 34.0% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $13.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 127 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 51 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 947,725 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 76 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 683,200 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Viavi Solutions Inc. are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and American Funds Small Cap World Fu. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 17.19 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $188.07 million. The company bought an additional 37024.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 7.65% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 13253.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 6.91 million shares valued at over $75.61 million and representing 3.08% of the shares outstanding. American Funds Small Cap World Fu now owns shares totaling to 3.04% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAV) opened at $10.40, up $0.21 from a prior closing price of $10.19. However, the script later moved the day high at 10.60, up 3.63%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 2.13% and -0.94% over the past three months. VIAV shares are trading 0.48% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -33.08% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $9.99 and touched a high of $16.69 over the same period. VIAV has an average intraday trading volume of 1.84 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -2.20%, -4.01%, and -17.14% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAV) shares accounts for 98.00% of the company’s 225.90M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 34.63%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 61.81% and 1.31% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.41B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.84. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 31.81, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.33. The company has a PEG of 2.12 and a Quick Ratio of 2.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.02. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.72% over the week and 2.44% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Viavi Solutions Inc. (VIAV) will achieve an EPS of $0.11 for the current quarter, $0.14 for the next quarter and $0.79 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.11 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.14. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.22 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -76.50%, and 28.06% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 15.00% over the next five years, compared to -37.00% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 9 brokerage firm advisors rate Viavi Solutions Inc. (VIAV) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 5 of the 9 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the VIAV, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Stifel stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on December 02, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $12. B. Riley Securities coverage for the Viavi Solutions Inc. (VIAV) stock in a research note released on November 04, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $14.50. JP Morgan on their part issued Neutral rating on July 20, 2021.
