EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $82.00, but opened at $86.05. EchoStar shares last traded at $88.3990, with a volume of 1,972,489 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SATS shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.40.

EchoStar Stock Up 6.0%

The company has a market cap of $26.93 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.08 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.61. The business’s fifty day moving average is $73.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.97.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,392,256.75. This trade represents a 38.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Paul Gaske sold 9,483 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.87, for a total transaction of $719,475.21. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,304.63. This trade represents a 98.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 266,151 shares of company stock worth $19,885,417 in the last ninety days. 55.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in EchoStar during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in 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 during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in EchoStar during the 2nd quarter valued at $73,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

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.