EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Stock Price Up 3.8% – Should You Buy?

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)’s stock price shot up 3.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $23.84 and last traded at $23.60. 264,965 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 1,207,171 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.73.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SATS. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 9th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Raymond James lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.50.

EchoStar Trading Up 3.5 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a PE ratio of -2.57 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, Chairman Charles W. Ergen bought 1,551,355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $28.04 per share, for a total transaction of $43,499,994.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,551,355 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,499,994.20. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 55.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in EchoStar by 54.7% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,231 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 2nd quarter worth $89,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter worth $165,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in EchoStar during the second quarter valued at about $183,000. Finally, Choreo LLC purchased a new position in EchoStar in the second quarter valued at about $186,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Company Profile

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.