EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $75.60.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SATS. Zacks Research lowered shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Citigroup increased their price target on EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In related news, Director Kathleen Q. Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total value of $1,379,691.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Paul Gaske sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.25, for a total value of $3,611,250.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 1,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $127,838.25. This represents a 96.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 11.1% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,665 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its stake in EchoStar by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 58,941 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,501,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 37,456 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,860,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,875 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 79.1% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Trading Down 3.7%

NASDAQ SATS opened at $67.40 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $74.18 and its 200-day moving average is $44.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -64.19 and a beta of 0.94. EchoStar has a one year low of $14.90 and a one year high of $85.37.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. EchoStar’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.52) EPS. Equities research analysts predict that EchoStar will post -1.99 EPS 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.