Prudential Financial Inc. Raises Stock Position in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 65.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,797 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,259 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 11.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $95,553,000 after buying an additional 355,009 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 2nd quarter worth $9,541,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,699,986 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $43,486,000 after acquiring an additional 343,590 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,268,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,139,000 after acquiring an additional 313,314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corebridge Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 196.8% in the first quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 192,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,919,000 after purchasing an additional 127,496 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SATS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research cut shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.60.

EchoStar Price Performance

SATS stock opened at $93.54 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $73.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.97. 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 stock has a market cap of $26.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.08 and a beta of 1.03. EchoStar Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $98.90.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion for 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 last year, the firm earned ($0.52) EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other EchoStar news, COO Paul Gaske sold 9,483 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.87, for a total value of $719,475.21. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This trade represents a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 266,151 shares of company stock valued at $19,885,417. Company insiders own 55.70% of the company’s stock.

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.