Insider Selling: EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) CEO Sells 52,586 Shares of Stock

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 52,586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.00, for a total value of $6,362,906.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 865,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $104,741,593. This trade represents a 5.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

EchoStar Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of SATS traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.77. 7,364,323 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,084,306. 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 Corporation has a 52 week low of $15.86 and a 52 week high of $147.25. The company has a market cap of $33.84 billion, a PE ratio of -2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $125.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.76.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.51) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.03). The business 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.71) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that EchoStar Corporation will post -3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SATS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Monday, April 20th. New Street Research assumed coverage on EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $161.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price objective on EchoStar from $129.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen raised EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on EchoStar from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.14.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in EchoStar by 134.8% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 324 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Company Profile

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.