Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) currently trades at $38.50 with an enterprise value of $7.67B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Viasat, Inc. at 83/100 (Grade: A · High-Quality Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 8.3% vs. historical growth of 19.5% (Substantial Margin of Safety).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test VSAT's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $38.50).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $65.26 +70% | $69.30 +80% | $74.01 +92% | $79.58 +107% | $86.27 +124% |
| 9.3% | $58.70 +52% | $61.89 +61% | $65.54 +70% | $69.78 +81% | $74.75 +94% |
| 10.0% | $53.31 +38% | $55.87 +45% | $58.77 +53% | $62.08 +61% | $65.90 +71% |
| 10.8% | $48.80 +27% | $50.90 +32% | $53.24 +38% | $55.89 +45% | $58.90 +53% |
| 11.5% | $44.98 +17% | $46.72 +21% | $48.64 +26% | $50.80 +32% | $53.22 +38% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (83/100 · Grade A)
Strong fundamentals, above-average cash generation, and robust competitive positioning.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
High-quality software margins with healthy balanced growth and profitability
Positive net cash cushion; self-funding operations with zero insolvency risk
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 237% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Healthy unit economics: 75.9% gross margin
- Net cash positive: $278.4M balance sheet buffer
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into VSAT?
The current share price only requires 8.3% 5-year CAGR (18.6% dilution-adjusted), well below historical growth of 19.5%. If the company maintains baseline execution, there is asymmetric upside.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (14.3% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.8%/yr). Accounting for both requires 18.6% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $38.50/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.06B | $1.06B | $1.27B | $1.52B | $1.81B | $2.17B | $2.59B |
| Gross Profit | $806.6M | $806.6M | $963.9M | $1.15B | $1.38B | $1.64B | $1.97B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $119.0M | $119.0M | $142.2M | $170.0M | $203.1M | $242.7M | $290.1M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $152.0M | $152.0M | $181.6M | $217.0M | $259.3M | $309.9M | $370.4M |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $282.7M | $282.7M | $337.8M | $403.7M | $482.4M | $576.5M | $688.9M |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $130.7M | $130.7M | $156.2M | $186.7M | $223.1M | $266.6M | $318.6M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -33.3 + 0.87 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 81%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viasat, Inc. | VSAT | $5.21B | $1.06B | 75.9% | 26.6% | 46.1% | 14.3% | 4.6× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 4.6× | $4.93B | $5.21B | $38.50 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 3.7× | $3.94B | $4.22B | $31.21 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 3.0× | $3.20B | $3.48B | $25.75 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $5.31B | $5.59B | $41.34 | +7.8% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) Valuation
What is Viasat, Inc. (VSAT)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) has a Base Case implied value of $58.77 per share (with a Bear Case of $26.79 and a Bull Case of $102.88), compared to its current price of $38.50. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Viasat, Inc. (VSAT)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Viasat, Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 46.1%, combining a 19.5% revenue growth run-rate with a 26.6% TTM free cash flow margin on $1.06B in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into VSAT stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $38.50 per share (Enterprise Value of $4.93B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 8.3%, compared to Viasat, Inc.'s historical CAGR of 19.5%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Substantial Margin of Safety".
How does Viasat, Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 83/100 (Grade A — High-Quality Compounder). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Viasat, Inc. (VSAT)'s valuation?
Viasat, Inc. recorded $152.0M in TTM stock-based compensation (14.3% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Viasat, Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 2.5%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
