EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Hits New 52-Week High - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• EchoStar's share price has reached a new 52-week high of $34.20, closing at $32.82, marking a significant increase from the previous close of $29.51.
• Analysts have set a consensus rating of "Hold" for EchoStar, with a price target revised to $28.50 from $27.00 by Citigroup.
• The company reported a loss of $0.71 per share in its last quarterly earnings, which exceeded analysts' expectations, despite a 3.6% decline in revenue year-over-year.

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $34.20 and last traded at $32.82, with a volume of 6151300 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $29.51.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $27.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $24.70.

EchoStar Trading Down 17.4%

The stock's 50-day moving average price is $25.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.26.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 8th. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.07) by $0.01. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 1.37% and a negative return on equity of 1.08%. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.76) earnings per share. EchoStar's quarterly revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. LPL Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth approximately $204,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,737,733 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $314,594,000 after buying an additional 88,488 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 18,868 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $432,000 after buying an additional 2,954 shares during the last quarter. Atika Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,336,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 24.3% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,518 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 2,642 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.