EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Stock Price Up 3.3%

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)’s share price rose 3.3% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $14.36 and last traded at $14.34. Approximately 78,218 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 97% from the average daily volume of 2,446,447 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SATS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Saturday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.00.

EchoStar Trading Up 1.2 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.47.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $1.19. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 5.24% and a negative net margin of 36.33%. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director James Defranco acquired 70,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $13.14 per share, for a total transaction of $919,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 176,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,325,136.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. Pennant Select LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at $36,892,000. Beryl Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $36,090,000. Pennant Investors LP acquired a new position in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at $35,679,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in EchoStar by 4,541.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 639,094 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,590,000 after purchasing an additional 625,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $10,155,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.