Brokerages Set EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Price Target at $23.00

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in EchoStar by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 75,400 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in EchoStar by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 52,341 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its stake in EchoStar by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 18,046 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 2,261 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of EchoStar stock opened at $16.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.27 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $13.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.48. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $9.53 and a 52 week high of $24.80.

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

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.