Viasat is up 40.6% over the past week. Short sellers are adding positions. Options traders are trimming downside hedges. All three signals are pointing in different directions — and that tension is worth watching.
The clearest bullish signal right now is in options. The put-call ratio hit 0.51 on June 30, down from a 20-day mean of 0.63. That's 1.8 standard deviations below average. Traders are shedding protective puts even as the stock runs hard. That kind of positioning shift — buying calls, dropping hedges — reflects genuine conviction in the rally, not just passive drift.
Short interest tells the opposite story. SI hit 8.65% of free float as of June 30, up 14.6% over the week. That's roughly 11.7 million shares short. Shorts are building into the rally, not covering. The ORTEX short score climbed to 56.7 — up from 52.3 a week ago. Still mid-range, but the trend is rising.
The cost to borrow doubled in a week, reaching 0.96%. That's the sharpest spike since late May. It remains cheap in absolute terms. But the direction matters — sharply rising borrow costs alongside rising SI means new shorts are paying more to establish positions, even as availability stays loose at 383%.
The stock's move follows news on satellite capacity expansion. Analysts have been lifting targets steadily. Needham raised its target to $90 in June. B. Riley went to $106 in May. Both maintain Buy ratings. The consensus mean target is $94.56 — close to where the stock closed on June 30 at $89.81.
That leaves little upside to consensus unless analysts revise again. With next earnings on August 7, the window for further target hikes is open.
One note of caution: insiders were selling in June. CEO Mark Dankberg sold over $25 million worth of shares on June 8, at prices between $63 and $69. CFO Garrett Chase sold a further $249,000 on June 22. Both transactions came well below the current price, suggesting they weren't anticipating this week's move — but the net insider flow over 90 days is net selling of roughly $27.6 million in value.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open VSAT on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
