Viasat Shares Surge 4.15% Intraday on August 29 2025 Driven by Spectrum Valuation Potential and Turnaround Earnings

Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) shares surged 4.15% intraday on August 29, 2025, reaching a level not seen since August 2025, marking the sixth consecutive day of gains with a cumulative rise of 25.26% over the period. The stock’s recent momentum reflects a combination of strategic shifts and renewed investor confidence in its core operations.

Below is an interactive back-test panel that visualises how the strategy behaved. Key implementation assumptions are listed after the chart.

Key take-aways

Over the last five years the breakout-and-hold rule produced a negative total return with a Sharpe ratio well below zero, indicating poor risk-adjusted performance.

Drawdowns were meaningful relative to the short holding period, showing that recent-high breakouts in VSAT did not translate into sustained momentum.

Implementation notes and default settings

• “Recent High” was defined as a new 52-week (252-trading-day) closing high—the most common convention in momentum research.

• Positions are entered at the next day’s open and closed automatically after five trading days (max_holding_days = 5).

• No stop-loss or take-profit thresholds were applied; performance purely reflects the time-based exit rule.

Feel free to let me know if you’d like to test a different look-back window, add risk filters, or explore other securities.

Unprecedented options market activity has underscored heightened speculation, with VSAT’s options volume spiking to 109,914 contracts on August 6—11 times its 30-day average. A standout was the Jan. 16/2026 $35 call option, which saw a Vol/OI ratio of 343.19, signaling aggressive bullish positioning. This surge coincided with Viasat’s transformation from a cash-burn entity to a stabilized business after its $2 billion sale of the Link-16 Tactical Data Links unit, which alleviated financial strain and restored investor optimism.

Analysts highlighted the company’s undervalued international spectrum holdings as a key catalyst. Following EchoStar’s $4.5 billion spectrum deal with AT&T in late 2024, William Blair’s Louie DiPalma estimated Viasat’s spectrum could be worth over $2 billion, far exceeding its current $4.37 billion market cap. This “sum-of-the-parts” valuation approach positions the asset as a potential revenue driver, particularly in satellite broadband and defense contracts, where spectrum flexibility supports expansion into emerging markets.

Q2 2025 earnings reinforced Viasat’s turnaround, with $0.17 EPS beating estimates by $0.32 and $1.17 billion in revenue exceeding forecasts. Strong performance in satellite services—driven by consumer broadband, in-flight connectivity, and maritime solutions—boosted margins and attracted institutional investors like Quarry LP, which increased its stake by 2,412.3%. The asset sale also enabled debt reduction and R&D reinvestment, aligning with the company’s focus on core strengths.

Despite a “Hold” consensus rating from analysts, recent upgrades and a 30% average price target ($21.12) suggest cautious optimism. However, risks persist: Viasat’s negative net margin (-13.11%) and high beta (1.20) underscore its volatile, high-risk profile. Strategic challenges include monetizing spectrum assets, navigating competitive pressures in satellite broadband, and managing liquidity despite a manageable debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.