EchoStar Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:SATS)

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders bought 5,253 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 65% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,187 put options.

EchoStar Trading Down 11.3%

SATS stock opened at $17.89 on Friday. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $14.79 and a 52 week high of $32.48. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a PE ratio of -1.95 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.67.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.90) by $0.19. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.40) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that EchoStar will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. FIL Ltd grew its position in EchoStar by 139.9% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 601,250 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,769,000 after buying an additional 350,650 shares in the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC raised its holdings in EchoStar by 88.7% in the 4th quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 41,673 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $954,000 after acquiring an additional 19,590 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 69,076 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,582,000 after acquiring an additional 16,253 shares during the period. Pennant Investors LP grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Pennant Investors LP now owns 2,417,837 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $55,368,000 after purchasing an additional 97,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth $3,033,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About EchoStar

EchoStar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides networking technologies and services worldwide. The company operates in four segments: Pay-TV, Retail Wireless, 5G Network Deployment, Broadband and Satellite Services. The Pay-TV segment offers a direct broadcast and fixed satellite services; designs, develops, and distributes receiver system; and provides digital broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission and, other services to third-party pay-TV providers; and multichannel, live-linear and on-demand streaming over-the-top internet-based domestic, international, Latino, and Freestream video programming services under the DISH and SLING brand names.