Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $14.12 Million Holdings in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 4.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 568,991 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 25,771 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $14,122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Darsana Capital Partners LP bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the second quarter worth approximately $36,908,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new stake in EchoStar during the second quarter worth $1,830,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at $398,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in EchoStar by 238.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,707,909 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $195,338,000 after acquiring an additional 9,661,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc acquired a new position in EchoStar during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $833,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other news, Chairman Charles W. Ergen purchased 1,551,355 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $28.04 per share, for a total transaction of $43,499,994.20. Following the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 1,551,355 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,499,994.20. This represents a ? increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SATS has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 9th. Raymond James lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.25.

EchoStar Stock Performance

EchoStar stock opened at $22.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.19 billion, a PE ratio of -2.49 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. EchoStar Co. has a 1-year low of $9.53 and a 1-year high of $30.08.

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.