EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Equities research analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday. The brokerage set a “sell” rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on SATS. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.00.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of SATS opened at $14.20 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.04 and a beta of 0.69. EchoStar has a twelve month low of $9.53 and a twelve month high of $24.80. The company has a 50 day moving average of $13.55 and a 200-day moving average of $13.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $1.19. The company 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%. EchoStar’s revenue was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James Defranco acquired 110,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $13.48 per share, with a total value of $1,482,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 306,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,137,699.48. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 13.6% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,444,060 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $77,060,000 after buying an additional 531,537 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,046,742 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $67,055,000 after buying an additional 581,159 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 8.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,366,819 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $43,289,000 after buying an additional 182,601 shares in the last quarter. Pennant Select LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth $36,892,000. Finally, Beryl Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth $36,090,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About EchoStar

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.