Investors Purchase High Volume of EchoStar Call Options (NASDAQ:SATS)

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 32,790 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 68% compared to the typical daily volume of 19,479 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SATS. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $129.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Zacks Research lowered shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.14.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, COO John Swieringa sold 50,088 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.58, for a total transaction of $5,688,995.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 253,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,796,505.30. This trade represents a 16.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 71,005 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.52, for a total transaction of $7,634,457.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 823,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $88,520,463.36. This trade represents a 7.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 55.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rokos Capital Management LLP boosted its position in EchoStar by 47.8% in the first quarter. Rokos Capital Management LLP now owns 956,487 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $111,976,000 after buying an additional 309,390 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar in the first quarter valued at about $7,814,000. Empyrean Capital Partners LP boosted its position in EchoStar by 20.6% in the first quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP now owns 228,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,692,000 after buying an additional 39,000 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in EchoStar by 127.9% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,264 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,245,000 after buying an additional 20,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the first quarter worth approximately $561,000. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS traded down $0.78 on Monday, hitting $136.45. 8,947,675 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,140,902. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $120.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $107.25. EchoStar has a one year low of $14.90 and a one year high of $147.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.72 and a beta of 0.95.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 4.80% and a negative net margin of 97.56%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.71) EPS. Research analysts expect that EchoStar will post -2.51 earnings per share for the current year.

EchoStar Company Profile

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a global provider of satellite communication solutions, offering a suite of broadband and video delivery services to consumer, enterprise and government customers. The company operates two principal business segments: Broadband and Video. Through its Broadband segment, EchoStar delivers high-speed satellite internet access, managed network services and ground infrastructure for residential, commercial and rural markets. Its Video segment provides satellite fleet operations, teleport facilities and capacity-leasing services to video distributors and content providers.

In the Broadband segment, EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems division designs and manufactures satellite broadband equipment, including user terminals and gateways, and develops advanced network management technologies.