KBC Group NV Has $111,000 Stake in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

KBC Group NV cut its position in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 39.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,016 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,659 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $111,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SATS. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in EchoStar by 34.8% in the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 89,902 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,490,000 after buying an additional 23,195 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 394.8% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 20,055 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 16,002 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 270,025 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,907,000 after purchasing an additional 21,600 shares in the last quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 196.8% during the 1st quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 192,280 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,919,000 after purchasing an additional 127,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth approximately $276,000. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on SATS shares. Citigroup raised their target price 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. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 target price on EchoStar in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.60.

EchoStar Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS opened at $68.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -65.36 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. EchoStar Corporation has a 12-month low of $14.90 and a 12-month high of $85.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.06.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The company had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.52) EPS. Analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total transaction of $58,740.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathleen Q. Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total value of $1,379,691.90. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

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.