Viasat Extends Latin American Footprint With Brazil Offices

Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) recently extended its Latin American footprint by opening a new office in Brasilia, Brazil, and relocating an existing office to a larger facility within Sao Paulo. The strategic move will enable the company to bring high-quality satellite connectivity to one of the largest economies of the world.

The newly opened office in Brasilia will be in close proximity to Telebras – the state-controlled public telecommunications firm and strategic partner of Viasat – which is likely to translate into seamless cooperation between the two entities. On the other hand, the bigger office space in the relocated location within the largest city of the country would facilitate the company to make its presence felt in the growing commercial and financial center. The twin offices are likely to supplement its regional expansion plans as it focuses on bringing new satellite-enabled services across the country.

Notably, Viasat first collaborated with Telebras in February 2018 to commercialize the use of the Telebras-owned satellite to offer low cost, scalable broadband services to underserved communities. Since then, the two companies have provided Internet connectivity to several government entities under the Brazilian e-government initiative known as Governo Electronico - Servico de Atendimento ao Cidadao. Viasat further aims to leverage its infrastructure facilities to bring additional satellite services to Brazil, including broadband access for enterprise and residential markets; high-speed in-flight connectivity for commercial and business aircraft; and Community Wi-Fi hotspot services. The two new offices are likely to immensely help the company in these endeavors.

Viasat enjoys a leading position in the satellite and wireless communications market. With the rapid proliferation of the smartphone market and usage of mobile broadband, the user demand for coverage speed and quality has increased, which in turn is fueling the demand for network tuning and optimization to maintain high data traffic. The company attracts millions of U.S. consumers and enterprises by its high-quality broadband service. Encouragingly, Viasat’s blue-chip customer base, which comprises the U.S. Department of Defense, civil agencies, allied foreign governments, satellite network integrators as well as large communications service providers and enterprises, adds to its strength.

Viasat’s shares have gained 27.7% compared with the industry’s rally of 16.5% year to date.

Viasat currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some top-ranked stocks in the industry are PCTEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCTI) , Nokia (HE:NOKIA) Corp. (NYSE:NOK) and UTStarcom Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UTSI) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

PCTEL surpassed earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 110.4%.

Nokia surpassed earnings estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters, the average positive surprise being 89.3%.

UTStarcom surpassed earnings estimates twice in the trailing four quarters, the average positive surprise being 56.4%.

Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential

The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.

Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +98%, +119% and +164% in as little as 1 month. The stocks in this report could perform even better.

See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>