EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on SATS shares. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other news, Director James Defranco acquired 110,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $13.48 per share, for a total transaction of $1,482,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 306,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,137,699.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in EchoStar by 24.9% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 130,933 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,193,000 after buying an additional 26,120 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in EchoStar by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 178,405 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after buying an additional 4,766 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at about $247,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at about $231,000. Finally, Capula Management Ltd acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at about $706,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EchoStar Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $18.25 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $15.08 and its 200-day moving average is $13.84. The stock has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.37 and a beta of 0.62. EchoStar has a twelve month low of $9.53 and a twelve month high of $24.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.40) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $4.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.07 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 23.47% and a positive return on equity of 2.26%. The company’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that EchoStar will post -1.5 EPS for the current year.

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.