EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $137.7143.

SATS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Williams Trading set a $155.00 price objective on EchoStar in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Monday, April 20th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on EchoStar from $129.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen raised EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other EchoStar news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 52,586 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 865,633 shares in the company, valued at approximately $104,741,593. This trade represents a 5.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. DLD Asset Management LP bought a new position in EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $2,481,700,000. Sachem Head Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $568,218,000. Icahn Carl C acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $332,513,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at about $182,111,000. Finally, Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $98,819,000. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $103.80 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $119.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.25. EchoStar has a fifty-two week low of $24.15 and a fifty-two week high of $147.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.07 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (NASDAQ:SATS) last released 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). The business had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 posted ($0.71) EPS.

About EchoStar

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.