EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Trading Down 3.5% Following Insider Selling

Key Points

• Shares of EchoStar Corporation fell by 3.5% after COO Paul Gaske sold 45,000 shares, significantly reducing his stake in the company by 96.58%.
• Despite the recent decline in stock price, several analysts have maintained or upgraded their ratings, with Deutsche Bank setting a price objective of $105.00 for the stock.
• EchoStar reported a quarterly loss of ($1.06) earnings per share, surpassing analyst estimates but showing a 5.8% decline in year-over-year revenue.

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) were down 3.5% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $78.13 and last traded at $77.06. Approximately 296,897 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 92% from the average daily volume of 3,547,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.89.

Specifically, COO Paul Gaske sold 45,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.25, for a total transaction of $3,611,250.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $127,838.25. This represents a 96.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SATS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.90.

EchoStar Stock Down 4.8%

The firm has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a PE ratio of -72.84 and a beta of 0.99. The business's 50 day moving average price is $38.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.80 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 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.76) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in EchoStar by 50.3% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 53,287 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $1,363,000 after acquiring an additional 17,830 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in EchoStar by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 391,985 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $10,027,000 after acquiring an additional 17,448 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its stake in EchoStar by 394.8% during the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 20,055 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 16,002 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in EchoStar by 8.7% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 270,025 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $6,907,000 after acquiring an additional 21,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,762,000. 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.

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