EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

Several equities research analysts have commented on SATS shares. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen upped their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on EchoStar in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS opened at $103.93 on Thursday. 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 has a market cap of $29.92 billion, a PE ratio of -2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.36. EchoStar has a 1-year low of $14.90 and a 1-year high of $111.00.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its 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). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.52) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In other news, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total transaction of $30,106,684.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,688,870.65. The trade was a 43.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 55.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SATS. DLD Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $2,481,700,000. Icahn Carl C purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $332,513,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at about $98,819,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 15.5% during the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $248,192,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP bought a new position in EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $55,199,000. 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.