Brokerages Set EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) Target Price at $79.40

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

SATS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In other news, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 55.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. DLD Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,481,700,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in EchoStar by 15.5% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $248,192,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,672 shares in the last quarter. Icahn Carl C purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $332,513,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 11.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $95,553,000 after purchasing an additional 355,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 2.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,744,438 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $133,205,000 after purchasing an additional 48,322 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

NASDAQ:SATS opened at $107.37 on Thursday. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $14.90 and a 52 week high of $109.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The company has a market capitalization of $30.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.39 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $75.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.54.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.52) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that EchoStar will post -1.99 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.