60,300 Shares in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 60,300 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $999,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SATS. Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth approximately $523,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 24.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 130,933 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $2,193,000 after buying an additional 26,120 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 2.7% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 178,405 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after purchasing an additional 4,766 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter valued at approximately $247,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter valued at approximately $231,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other news, Director James Defranco bought 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.14 per share, with a total value of $919,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 176,951 shares in the company, valued at $2,325,136.14. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target for the company. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on EchoStar in a report on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.00.

EchoStar Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $15.88 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.28 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.61. EchoStar Co. has a 52-week low of $9.53 and a 52-week high of $24.80.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $1.19. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 36.33% and a positive return on equity of 5.24%. The firm had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.28 EPS for the current year.

EchoStar 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.