Allianz Asset Management GmbH Makes New $3.48 Million Investment in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Key Points

• Allianz Asset Management GmbH has initiated a new investment in EchoStar Corporation, purchasing 125,453 shares valued at approximately $3.48 million in the second quarter.
• Analysis upgrades include Morgan Stanley raising EchoStar's price target from $59.00 to $91.00, while Zacks and Citigroup have elevated their ratings to strong-buy.
• Insider transactions show CEO Hamid Akhavan selling 233,918 shares for over $17.6 million, indicating significant activity among company executives in the stock market.

Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 125,453 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,475,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SATS. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in EchoStar by 6.4% during the second quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 15,055 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 8,125.0% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 987 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 975 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 39.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,441 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 6.0% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 26,805 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $672,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 2.0% during the second quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 106,477 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,949,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Zacks Research raised EchoStar from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised EchoStar from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $75.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $17,625,721.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,392,256.75. The trade was a 38.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 154,835 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.20, for a total value of $12,572,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 432 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,078.40. This trade represents a 99.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480 in the last ninety days. 55.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $73.03 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.01 billion, a PE ratio of -69.55 and a beta of 0.96. EchoStar Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $85.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $65.97 and a 200-day moving average of $38.77.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 1.58% and a negative net margin of 2.04%.The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.76) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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