Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Buys 746 Shares of EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,235 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 746 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 39.6% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 50.3% during the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 53,287 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,363,000 after buying an additional 17,830 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the first quarter worth about $850,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the first quarter worth about $634,000. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the first quarter worth about $739,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of the firm’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 value of $58,740.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 154,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.20, for a total value of $12,572,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,078.40. The trade was a 99.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SATS. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised shares of EchoStar from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of EchoStar from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.20.

EchoStar Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of SATS stock opened at $73.48 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.22. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $72.87 and its 200-day moving average is $42.05. The stock has a market cap of $21.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.98 and a beta of 0.96. EchoStar Corporation has a 52-week low of $14.90 and a 52-week high of $85.37.

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.