Diversified Trust Co Invests $1.17 Million in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Diversified Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 15,282 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in EchoStar by 593.2% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 922 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 2nd quarter valued at about $73,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth approximately $128,000. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in EchoStar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $130,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in EchoStar by 16.6% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,235 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $145,000 after acquiring an additional 746 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SATS shares. Zacks Research cut shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on EchoStar from $97.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on EchoStar from $87.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $108.80.

EchoStar Price Performance

SATS opened at $108.70 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $84.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.90. The firm has a market cap of $31.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.42 and a beta of 1.01. EchoStar Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $111.39.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.52) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $30,106,684.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,688,870.65. This trade represents a 43.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

About EchoStar

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a global provider of satellite communication solutions, offering a suite of broadband and video delivery services to consumer, enterprise and government customers. The company operates two principal business segments: Broadband and Video. Through its Broadband segment, EchoStar delivers high-speed satellite internet access, managed network services and ground infrastructure for residential, commercial and rural markets. Its Video segment provides satellite fleet operations, teleport facilities and capacity-leasing services to video distributors and content providers.

In the Broadband segment, EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems division designs and manufactures satellite broadband equipment, including user terminals and gateways, and develops advanced network management technologies.