EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Down - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• EchoStar's shares gapped down significantly from a previous close of $32.59 to open at $29.45, and are currently trading at $27.50.
• Citigroup revised its price objective for EchoStar from $27.00 to $28.50, maintaining a "neutral" rating amidst an average analyst rating of "Hold" with a price target of $24.70.
• In its latest quarterly report, EchoStar posted an earnings per share of (-$1.06), slightly beating expectations, but the company experienced a 5.8% year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue.

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $32.59, but opened at $29.45. EchoStar shares last traded at $27.50, with a volume of 1,359,821 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

EchoStar Stock Up 1.5%

The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $25.58 and its 200 day simple moving average 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.46 and a beta of 0.93.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The firm 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 firm posted ($0.76) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research 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. LPL Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth approximately $204,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in EchoStar by 18.6% during the 4th 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 period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in EchoStar by 24.3% during the 4th 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 period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 119.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 27,491 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $630,000 after acquiring an additional 14,947 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of EchoStar by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,301,367 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $52,701,000 after acquiring an additional 474,313 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.