Satellite communications giant Viasat could be poised for growth in the coming months, according to Deutsche Bank. On Monday, the bank upgraded Viasat — a competitor of Starlink, the satellite internet service owned and operated by SpaceX — to buy from hold and upped its price target to $15 from $13. That reflects more than 53% upside from Friday’s close. “While we still have concerns about Viasat’s core communication services business longer-term in the context of pressure from Starlink, we see multiple paths for the company to create equity value by materially deleveraging its balance sheet through asset monetization,” analyst Edison Yu wrote in a note to clients. While the stock has risen about 12% in March and 15% in 2025, shares have underperformed the broader market over the past six months, falling more than 23%. That’s compared to the S & P 500’s six-month fall of more than 1%. VSAT 6M mountain VSAT, 6-month Yu believes there’s opportunity for gains through monetizing its L-band spectrum, which he said is “attractive due to its reliability (e.g., avoid rain fade) and versatility (cover wide area with small antenna).” That opportunity can come in part through Ligado’s recent deal with AST SpaceMobile that sees Ligado gain access to its L-band in both the U.S. and Canada — a majority of which is owned by Viasat, Yu said. “Our rough estimate is Viasat owns at least two-thirds of the 40 MHz,” the analyst wrote. “Separately, Viasat owns L-band outside of US/Canada which can be used for [direct-to-device] services and is working with the European Space Agency and Space42 (UAE) to develop potential solutions.” Yu also believes that there’s opportunity in Viasat selling its Defense and Advanced Technologies assets. “In a spin-off situation, our view would be DAT can command a much higher valuation on its own over time given ‘Defense Tech’ public comps such as Kratos and Karmin trade at materially higher multiples ( > 30x 2025E EBITDA),” the analyst also said. “Hence, we feel quite comfortable assigning a low teens multiple to a standalone DAT entity should it get floated.” Beyond that, Yu sees the company successfully deploying the two ViaSat-3 satellites – i.e., F2 and F3 – which could remove an overhang on the stock and lead to positive free cash flow of $300 million to $500 million in 2027. Most of Wall Street is neutral on Viasat, however. While Yu’s call is one of two buy ratings among analysts on the Street, seven out of nine analysts covering it have a hold rating. However, its average target of around $20 implies nearly 108% upside potential over the next several months. Following Yu’s move, the stock gained nearly 5% in premarket trading on Monday.
