EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Sets New 12-Month High - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• EchoStar Corporation's share price hit a new 52-week high of $62.68 during trading, indicating positive market sentiment around the stock.
• Analyst ratings are mixed, with three providing a Buy rating, four a Hold rating, and an average price target of $49.90 based on recent research.
• The company's quarterly earnings showed a loss of ($1.06) EPS, beating estimates but reflecting a 5.8% decline in revenue compared to the same quarter last year.

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $62.68 and last traded at $62.23, with a volume of 545027 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $61.79.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SATS. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $25.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $43.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, EchoStar has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $49.90.

EchoStar Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -64.04 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.57.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 1.58% and a negative net margin of 2.04%.EchoStar's revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.76) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Darsana Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 15.5% during the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $248,192,000 after buying an additional 1,201,672 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in EchoStar by 325.3% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 940,950 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $21,548,000 after purchasing an additional 719,685 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in EchoStar by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $95,553,000 after purchasing an additional 355,009 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 2nd quarter valued at about $9,541,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 223.0% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 498,154 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $11,408,000 after buying an additional 343,913 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

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.