EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $23.00.

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In other news, Director James Defranco bought 110,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.48 per share, with a total value of $1,482,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 306,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,137,699.48. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth $126,000. Gladius Capital Management LP bought a new stake in EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth $134,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 150.2% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 9,439 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 5,666 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $15.06 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.16 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $13.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.45. EchoStar has a twelve month low of $9.53 and a twelve month high of $24.80.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $1.19. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 36.33% and a positive return on equity of 5.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 732.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

EchoStar Company Profile

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.