EchoStar Corporation $SATS Shares Acquired by Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in EchoStar Corporation by 22.6%, holding 26,613 shares worth approximately $737,000 after acquiring an additional 4,897 shares in the second quarter.
• Analyst reports show a generally positive outlook for EchoStar, with price targets raised by firms like TD Cowen and Morgan Stanley, indicating a consensus rating of "Hold" and a target price of $63.90.
• Insiders sold a significant amount of EchoStar stock recently, with COO John Swieringa selling 154,835 shares for over $12.5 million, dramatically reducing their stake by almost 100%.

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 22.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,613 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,897 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.'s holdings in EchoStar were worth $737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised 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 worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 975 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in EchoStar by 44.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,841 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group increased its stake in EchoStar by 70,980.0% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 3,554 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 3,549 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on SATS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 target price on EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Citigroup reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $85.00 target price (up from $67.00) on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EchoStar presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $75.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kathleen Q. Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total value of $1,379,691.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $28,392,256.75. This represents a 38.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 460,740 shares of company stock worth $35,967,480. Company insiders own 55.70% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ SATS traded up $1.09 on Tuesday, hitting $74.23. The company had a trading volume of 1,071,055 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,664,699. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -70.70 and a beta of 0.98. EchoStar Corporation has a 12-month low of $14.90 and a 12-month high of $85.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The business has a 50 day moving average of $44.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.03.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.76) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EchoStar 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.