VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Makes New Investment in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 10,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $294,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in EchoStar by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth $175,000. Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in EchoStar by 50.3% in the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 53,287 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,363,000 after buying an additional 17,830 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at $850,000. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at $634,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In related news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total value of $58,740.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 460,740 shares of company stock worth $35,967,480 over the last three months. 55.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

EchoStar Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $74.12 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. EchoStar Corporation has a 52 week low of $14.90 and a 52 week high of $85.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -70.59 and a beta of 0.96.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.06. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.76) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on SATS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Friday. Citigroup raised shares of EchoStar from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.20.

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.