Hamid Akhavan Sells 285,832 Shares of EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Stock

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $30,106,684.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $39,688,870.65. This trade represents a 43.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS traded down $3.44 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $103.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,880,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,941,318. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.36. The company has a market capitalization of $29.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.31 and a beta of 1.03. EchoStar Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $111.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 0.39% and a negative net margin of 85.36%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.52) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter worth about $38,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in EchoStar by 79.1% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 593.2% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 922 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $92,000. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.40.

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.