Inspire Investing LLC Acquires 65,941 Shares of EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Key Points

• Inspire Investing LLC significantly increased its ownership in EchoStar Corporation by acquiring 65,941 shares, boosting its stake by 374.7% during the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Northern Trust Corp and Zimmer Partners LP, have also increased their stakes in EchoStar, indicating growing institutional interest with a total of 33.62% of shares owned by institutions.
• EchoStar's stock price is currently down 2.8% with a year-to-date trading range of $14.90 to $85.37, and the company reported a loss of ($1.06) EPS in its latest earnings announcement.

Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 374.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 83,540 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 65,941 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC's holdings in EchoStar were worth $2,137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SATS. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,699,986 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $43,486,000 after purchasing an additional 343,590 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,526,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,457,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,762,000. Finally, Tiptree Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,073,000. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

EchoStar Stock Down 2.8%

SATS stock opened at $74.89 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $21.55 billion, a PE ratio of -71.32 and a beta of 0.99. EchoStar Corporation has a 1-year low of $14.90 and a 1-year high of $85.37. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $39.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.29.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 1.58% and a negative net margin of 2.04%.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) EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, COO Paul Gaske sold 45,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.25, for a total value of $3,611,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,593 shares of the company's stock, valued at $127,838.25. This represents a 96.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Q. Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total value of $1,379,691.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 216,589 shares of company stock valued at $17,563,544 in the last ninety days. 55.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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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