EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SATS shares. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley raised EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th.

EchoStar Trading Up 11.2%

SATS opened at $103.98 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.34. EchoStar has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $105.31. The company has a market cap of $29.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.32 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The business had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. EchoStar’s revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.52) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that EchoStar will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $17,625,721.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $28,392,256.75. This represents a 38.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 266,151 shares of company stock valued at $19,885,417 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 34.8% during the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 89,902 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,490,000 after purchasing an additional 23,195 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in EchoStar by 394.8% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 20,055 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $513,000 after buying an additional 16,002 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 8.7% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 270,025 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $6,907,000 after buying an additional 21,600 shares during the last quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 196.8% during the 1st quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 192,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,919,000 after buying an additional 127,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 115,835 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after acquiring an additional 38,131 shares in the last quarter. 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.