KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Decreases Stake in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lowered its holdings in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,406 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 900 shares during the quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $815,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in EchoStar by 8,125.0% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 987 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 975 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in EchoStar by 44.5% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,841 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in EchoStar by 39.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in EchoStar by 70,980.0% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 3,554 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 3,549 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the first quarter valued at $102,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other EchoStar news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total transaction of $58,740.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,392,256.75. This trade represents a 38.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480. 55.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on SATS shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised EchoStar from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.20.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS opened at $72.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.06. EchoStar Corporation has a twelve month low of $14.90 and a twelve month high of $85.37.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 1.58% and a negative net margin of 2.04%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.76) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal 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.