EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $132.1667.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SATS. Williams Trading set a $158.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup raised their price objective on EchoStar from $87.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th.

EchoStar Price Performance

SATS opened at $113.46 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $32.66 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.53 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $104.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.86. EchoStar has a 12-month low of $14.90 and a 12-month high of $132.25.

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

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In other EchoStar 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 value of $1,481,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $39,688,870.65. This represents a 43.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SATS. DLD Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter valued at about $2,481,700,000. Icahn Carl C purchased a new position in EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $332,513,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd bought a new position in EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $98,819,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $248,192,000 after buying an additional 1,201,672 shares during the period. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,199,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% 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.