Avala Global LP Buys Shares of 464,600 EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Avala Global LP bought a new stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 464,600 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $50,502,000. EchoStar makes up approximately 2.4% of Avala Global LP’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boothbay Fund Management LLC grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 82,414 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,958,000 after purchasing an additional 14,688 shares during the last quarter. Metavasi Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,892,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,120,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 89.0% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 34,324 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,731,000 after purchasing an additional 16,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abel Hall LLC grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 91.5% in the fourth quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 7,930 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $862,000 after purchasing an additional 3,788 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In other news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 52,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.00, for a total value of $6,362,906.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $129.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.71.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS stock opened at $111.70 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.79. EchoStar Corporation has a 52 week low of $24.15 and a 52 week high of $147.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17. The company has a market cap of $32.37 billion, a PE ratio of -2.23 and a beta of 0.94.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its earnings results 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). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 97.56% and a negative return on equity of 4.80%. The business had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.71) EPS.

EchoStar 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.