EchoStar Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:SATS)

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders acquired 57,835 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 252% compared to the average daily volume of 16,418 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SATS. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen upped their price target on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.60.

EchoStar Stock Up 10.1%

NASDAQ SATS opened at $82.00 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $73.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.58. The company has a market capitalization of $23.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.83 and a beta of 1.03. EchoStar has a 1-year low of $14.90 and a 1-year high of $88.00.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The company had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 0.39% and a negative net margin of 85.36%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.52) earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 482,740 shares of company stock worth $37,448,960 in the last 90 days. 55.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in EchoStar by 79.1% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 593.2% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 922 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the second quarter worth approximately $73,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About EchoStar

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.