Northern Trust Corp Purchases 343,590 Shares of EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in EchoStar Corporation by 25.3%, owning approximately 1.7 million shares valued at $43.5 million.
• Wall Street analysts are optimistic, with Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank raising their price targets for EchoStar to between $59.00 and $67.00, while maintaining "buy" ratings.
• Despite a revenue decline of 5.8% year-over-year, EchoStar reported better-than-expected earnings, posting an EPS of ($1.06), beating estimates by $0.06.

Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 25.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,699,986 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 343,590 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 0.59% of EchoStar worth $43,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 44.5% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,841 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 8,125.0% during the 1st 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 boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 39.6% during the 1st 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. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 69,283 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $1,587,000 after purchasing an additional 2,712 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on EchoStar from $43.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen upped their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on EchoStar from $25.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $49.90.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS traded up $4.84 on Monday, reaching $61.79. 12,437,823 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,989,474. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $17.78 billion, a PE ratio of -58.85 and a beta of 0.98. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $31.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.30. EchoStar Corporation has a 52-week low of $14.90 and a 52-week high of $61.87.

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