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VSAT, ViaSat Inc.

Telecom Operators capital-intensive UnprofitableDistress / turnaround

We are an innovative, global provider of communications technologies and services, focused on making connectivity accessible, available and secure for current and future customers worldwide.

By leveraging our own satellite fleet and its advantages, existing national operator partnerships, plus coverage and capacity from leading third-party satellites and constellations, our services are designed to provide customers with the essential capacity density, market access, speed, bandwidth and responsiveness they need.

We design, develop and produce space system solutions for multiple orbital regimes, including geostationary earth orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO) and low earth orbit (LEO).

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

VSAT · ViaSat Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$4.6B

+2.7% YoY · 19% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $4.6B 5-yr avg $3.7B

Gross margin 88%

Operating margin 2.4% 5-yr avg −6.3%

ROIC 1% 5-yr avg −2%

Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~39 days after · the wire records it on arrival

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is Services (71%) and Products (29%).
Situation: Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run around −2.7% through the cycle, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Capital spending runs about 33% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on subscribers, revenue per user, and network capex. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −2%, above 15% in 0 of 9 years). By owner earnings: roughly 7% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Services is 71% of revenue, with Products the other meaningful line at 29%.

Revenue by product line, FY2026

Services71%$3.3B
Products29%$1.4B

By geographyUnited States68%International32%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMJun 2026
											Income statement
$1.6B	$1.6B	$2.1B	$2.3B	$1.9B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$4.3B	$4.5B	$4.6B	$4.6B	RevenueRevenue
$1.0B	$1.0B	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$4.1B	Gross profitGross prof.
66%	65%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	88%	Gross marginGross mgn
21%	24%	22%	23%	26%	27%	28%	44%	26%	22%	21%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
8%	11%	6%	6%	6%	6%	5%	4%	3%	4%	4%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$36M	($92M)	($61M)	$38M	($46M)	($113M)	($156M)	($890M)	($97M)	$108M	$109M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
2.3%	−5.8%	−2.9%	1.7%	−2.4%	−4.7%	−6.1%	−20.8%	−2.2%	2.3%	2.4%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$25M	($105M)	($110M)	$1M	($78M)	($138M)	($162M)	($1.2B)	($545M)	$105M	—	Pretax incomePretax
$24M	($67M)	($68M)	($212K)	$4M	($16M)	$1.1B	($1.1B)	($575M)	($34M)	($29M)	Net incomeNet inc.
											Cash flow & returns
$411M	$359M	$328M	$437M	$727M	$506M	$368M	$688M	$908M	$1.6B	$1.6B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$201M	$210M	$262M	$280M	$331M	$407M	$410M	$868M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.0B	DepreciationDeprec.
$131M	$147M	$53M	$71M	$308M	$27M	($1.2B)	$806M	$366M	$504M	$516M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$515M	$512M	$637M	$694M	$827M	$938M	$1.1B	—	—	—	—	CapexCapex
33.0%	32.1%	30.8%	30.1%	43.1%	38.8%	42.1%	—	—	—	—	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$211M	$148M	$65M	$157M	$396M	$98M	($42M)	—	—	—	—	Owner earningsOwner earn.
13.5%	9.3%	3.2%	6.8%	20.6%	4.1%	−1.6%	—	—	—	—	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($103M)	($153M)	($309M)	($257M)	($100M)	($433M)	($709M)	—	—	—	—	Free cash flowFCF
−6.6%	−9.6%	−15.0%	−11.1%	−5.2%	−17.9%	−27.7%	—	—	—	—	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$17M	—	$2M	—	—	$140M	—	$343M	—	—	$343M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
($715M)	($584M)	($489M)	($759M)	($885M)	($1.1B)	$768M	($1.3B)	($758M)	($759M)	—	Investing cash flowInv. cash
$393M	$166M	$355M	$365M	$150M	$644M	($66M)	$1.1B	($443M)	($694M)	—	Financing cash flowFin. cash
($1M)	$1M	($2M)	($712K)	$5K	($5M)	($843K)	$275K	$4M	($2M)	—	Exchange-rate effectFX
$88M	($59M)	$190M	$43M	($8M)	$15M	$1.1B	$522M	($289M)	$135M	—	Change in cashΔ cash
1%	-3%	-2%	—	-1%	-2%	-3%	-7%	-1%	1%	1%	ROICROIC
1%	-4%	-4%	-0%	0%	-1%	28%	-21%	-13%	-1%	-1%	Return on equityROE
1%	−4%	−4%	−0%	0%	−1%	28%	−21%	−13%	−1%	−1%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$130M	$71M	$262M	$304M	$296M	$310M	$1.3B	$1.9B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.7B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$264M	$268M	$300M	$331M	$239M	$312M	$420M	$678M	$700M	$753M	$744M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$163M	$196M	$235M	$294M	$337M	$198M	$269M	$318M	$294M	$281M	$294M	InventoryInvent.
$100M	$157M	$157M	$184M	$145M	$201M	$272M	$287M	$264M	$288M	$289M	Accounts payablePayables
$327M	$306M	$378M	$442M	$430M	$309M	$417M	$709M	$729M	$746M	$750M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$615M	$613M	$887M	$1.0B	$991M	$1.2B	$2.2B	$3.5B	$2.9B	$3.1B	$3.1B	Current assetsCur. assets
$326M	$466M	$485M	$605M	$708M	$770M	$957M	$1.3B	$1.7B	$1.3B	$1.9B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.9×	1.3×	1.8×	1.7×	1.4×	1.5×	2.3×	2.7×	1.7×	2.4×	1.7×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
—	—	$2.1B	$2.6B	$3.1B	$3.7B	$4.4B	$7.6B	$7.4B	$7.3B	—	Net PP&ENet PP&E
$120M	$121M	$122M	$121M	$122M	$169M	$159M	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.6B	GoodwillGoodwill
$3.0B	$3.4B	$3.9B	$4.9B	$5.3B	$6.4B	$7.7B	$16.3B	$15.4B	$15.2B	$15.1B	Total assetsAssets
$849M	$1.0B	$1.4B	$1.9B	$1.9B	$2.5B	$2.5B	$7.5B	$7.2B	$6.6B	$6.6B	Total debtDebt
$719M	$952M	$1.2B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$2.2B	$1.1B	$5.6B	$5.6B	$4.8B	$4.8B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
3.0×	-22.9×	-1.2×	1.0×	-1.4×	-3.8×	-5.8×	-2.2×	-0.2×	0.3×	0.3×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$1.2B	$1.6B	$2.0B	$2.8B	$3.0B	$3.7B	$3.9B	$11.3B	$10.8B	$10.5B	—	Total liabilitiesTotal liab.
$3M	$11M	$8M	$22M	$36M	$49M	$36M	$47M	$91M	$69M	—	Noncontrolling interestsNCI
$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$2.0B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$3.8B	$5.0B	$4.6B	$4.7B	$4.6B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
3.6%	4.3%	3.8%	3.7%	4.4%	3.6%	3.3%	2.0%	1.8%	1.7%	2.0%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
53.4M	58.4M	59.9M	61.6M	66.4M	73.4M	75.9M	117M	128M	135M	137M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$29.20	$27.29	$34.50	$37.47	$28.91	$32.93	$33.67	$36.55	$35.18	$34.44	$33.73	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.45	$-1.15	$-1.13	$-0.00	$0.06	$-0.21	$14.29	$-9.12	$-4.48	$-0.25	$-0.21	EPS (diluted)EPS
$3.94	$2.54	$1.09	$2.55	$5.97	$1.34	$-0.55	—	—	—	—	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.94	$-2.62	$-5.16	$-4.17	$-1.51	$-5.89	$-9.34	—	—	—	—	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$9.64	$8.76	$10.62	$11.26	$12.45	$12.78	$14.19	—	—	—	—	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$32.49	$31.44	$31.83	$32.90	$35.39	$35.89	$50.38	$42.88	$35.44	$34.59	$33.84	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.54 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+1.8%/yr	+3.6%/yr
Capital spending / share	+6.7%/yr (6-yr)	+10.1%/yr
Book value / share	+0.7%/yr	−0.5%/yr

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2019–FY2023cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2023 the business earned ($42M) of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $410M it takes just to hold its position. It put $667M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($709M).

	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020	FY2019
Reported net income	$1.1B	($16M)	$4M	($212K)	($68M)
Depreciationnon-cash charge added back	+$410M	+$407M	+$331M	+$280M	+$262M
Amortization of intangible assetsnon-cash charge added back; the purchase price of past acquisitions, expensed over time	+$91M	+$88M	+$66M	+$62M	+$56M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$84M	+$87M	+$85M	+$87M	+$80M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$1.3B	−$61M	+$242M	+$8M	−$3M
Cash from operations	$368M	$506M	$727M	$437M	$328M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$410M	−$407M	−$331M	−$280M	−$262M
Owner earnings	($42M)	$98M	$396M	$157M	$65M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$667M	−$531M	−$496M	−$414M	−$375M
Free cash flow	($709M)	($433M)	($100M)	($257M)	($309M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	-2%	4%	21%	7%	3%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $410M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $667M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $84M), owner earnings is nearer ($126M).

Much of fiscal 2023's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 0.3×

Does not cover its interest

Operating income $108M ÷ interest expense $360M

What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $4.8B · 44.7× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $1.7B − debt $6.6B

What this means
Netting $1.7B of cash and short-term investments against $6.6B of debt leaves $4.8B owed, about 44.7× a year's operating profit (60.9× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital -2%

Below average through the cycle

9-yr median, range -7%–1%; 1% latest = NOPAT $54M ÷ invested capital $9.5B

Industry peers: median 1%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 9 years (it ran 1% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 13%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Are earnings backed by cash? $1.6B

Loss, but cash-generative

Net income ($34M) · cash from operations $1.6B

What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

The promise and the pay packet

Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 1.7%

Stock pay, share count unread

Stock compensation $81M (fiscal 2026), 1.7% of revenue · no repurchases · the share count is not comparable across these years (a split or a first listing sits in the record), so the drift is withheld

What this means
Stock handed to employees is a real cost paid in the owner's own currency: it is charged against profit, but the shares it creates are permanent. Many companies repurchase stock at the same time, which looks like a return of capital and often is not — if the count barely moves, the cash merely cancelled the pay packet and bought the owner nothing. The three states worth telling apart are a count genuinely shrinking, a count standing still despite large repurchases, and a count rising because the issuance was never offset at all.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 4 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $4.6B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.41×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $6.6B vs $1.8B WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 7 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record —

Uninterrupted dividends · no dividend line tagged in the data

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. This record carries no dividends-paid line in any year — common for partnerships, whose distributions file under tags the chain doesn't read — so the criterion is withheld rather than judged on silence.
Earnings growth —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-4.06/share (latest year $-0.25), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $33.83/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 3 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin −2% → −7% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
The recent-years average (−7%) sits below the early years (−2%), but the latest year (2%) is back near the early level: a cyclical trough dragging the window down, not a one-way slide. The through-cycle median is −3% — read it across the cycle, not on the dip.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC −3%

What this means
Reinvested capital came back at a negative incremental return over this window — the invested base grew while operating profit did not. The filings show where it went.
Owner earnings growth −27%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 27% a year over the record.
Worst year 2024 · −20.8% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2024, understand why before trusting the good years.
How management talks about it Promotional

What this means
The returns have faded, yet the filing reaches for a promoter’s vocabulary — world-class, best-in-class, disruptive — more than an owner’s. When the words sell harder than the results deliver, the gap is the thing to weigh.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Jun 30, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$3.1B

Cash & short-term investments$1.7B
Receivables$744M
Inventory$294M
Other current assets$331M

Current liabilities$1.9B

Debt due within a year$662M
Accounts payable$289M
Other current liabilities$903M

Current ratio1.68×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.52×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.94×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$1.3Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$662M due · $1.7B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Jun 30, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−1.2%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.4× → 1.7×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$1.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($7.3B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$1.1B$483M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$1.4Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2023

Over the record, the business generated $3.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$5.2B · 166%

Source of funding−$2.1B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $2.1B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $849M to $6.6B.
Net change in share count156.8%
The diluted count rose from 53M to 137M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
Return on what it retained1%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($962M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $10M, so each retained $1 added about 0.01 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$3.6B24% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity35%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$958Mover 10 years since fiscal 2009 buying other businesses, against $5.2B of capital spent building over the 10-year record

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Beside that spending sits $1.6B of cumulative amortization of acquired intangibles charged against earnings since fiscal 2009 — the purchase price of past deals, expensed over time.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and amortization summed across the company's full tagged history, write-downs across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Mark Dankberg	$9.4M	$14.2M	$396M
2021	Richard Baldridge	$9.2M	$13.8M	$396M
2022	Richard Baldridge	$12.2M	$9.6M	$98M
2023	Mark Dankberg	$7.0M	−$2.3M	($42M)
2023	Richard Baldridge	$4.9M	−$4.2M	($42M)
2024	Mark Dankberg	$9.0M	−$1.8M	—
2025	Mark Dankberg	$7.9M	$2.1M	—

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership5%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$81M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2026, 1.7% of revenue, equal to 75.0% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Peers, Telecom Operators

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

Company	Revenuelatest FY, USD	Gross marginmedian over the record	Op. marginmedian over the record	ROICmedian over the record	Owner earn. marginmedian over the record
ECHOEchoStar Corporation	$15.0B	87%2y	3.0%	1%	13%
TIGOMillicom International Cellular S.A.	$5.8B	72%	15.3%	5%	5%
TEOTelecom Argentina SA	$5.6B	—	6.0%	1%	14%
TIMBTIM S.A.	$5.1B	53%	20.3%	15%1y	28%
VSATViaSat Inc.	$4.6B	66%2y	-2.7%	-2%	7%
VEONVEON Ltd. ADS	$4.4B	—	24.4%	—	11%
CALXCalix	$1.0B	50%	-0.8%	-2%	3%
CCOICogent Communications Holdings Inc.	$976M	57%	16.1%	17%	14%
Group median	—	62%	10.7%	1%	12%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what ViaSat Inc. has delivered.

ViaSat Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($316M) Net of stock comp (−$91M TTM)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.65% 10-year Treasury (Aug 19, 2026) + 4.35 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’19→’23−29%/yr

Owner-earnings growth, delivered—

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.65%, as of Aug 19, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings — on 138M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-07-23; net debt $4.8B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits off the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh VSAT against another business →

The owners of VSAT: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "ViaSat Inc. (VSAT), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/VSAT, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← VRTX its page in the Manual VSCO →

Industry order: ← VOD the Telecom Operators chapter VZ →