EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Up 6.1% – Should You Buy?

Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) traded up 6.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $26.29 and last traded at $26.73. 144,628 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 1,548,263 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.18.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SATS has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley began coverage on EchoStar in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.75.

EchoStar Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average is $27.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.01. The firm has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.91 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by $1.87. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. The company had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at about $285,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 11.0% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,767 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,626 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of EchoStar by 5.4% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 324,416 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,052,000 after purchasing an additional 16,595 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 21,790 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at $651,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

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.