Allstate Corp Purchases New Shares in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Allstate Corp bought a new position in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 10,730 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,166,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of SATS. CoreCap Advisors LLC purchased a new position in EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter worth $38,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Finally, BOKF NA increased its stake in shares of EchoStar by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. BOKF NA now owns 400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SATS. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Williams Trading set a $155.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.14.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 71,005 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.52, for a total value of $7,634,457.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 823,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,520,463.36. This represents a 7.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 50,088 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.58, for a total transaction of $5,688,995.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 253,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,796,505.30. This represents a 16.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 55.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of EchoStar stock opened at $129.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.58 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $124.63 and its 200 day moving average is $110.95. EchoStar Corporation has a 1 year low of $14.90 and a 1 year high of $147.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.27.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 4.80% and a negative net margin of 97.56%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.71) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.