Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 52.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 280,126 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 305,864 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of EchoStar worth $7,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SATS. Diameter Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of EchoStar by 523.7% during the fourth quarter. Diameter Capital Partners LP now owns 5,026,823 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $115,114,000 after purchasing an additional 4,220,853 shares in the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its position in EchoStar by 133.3% during the fourth quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 7,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $160,300,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in EchoStar by 325.3% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 940,950 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $21,548,000 after acquiring an additional 719,685 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in EchoStar by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,301,367 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $52,701,000 after acquiring an additional 474,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its position in EchoStar by 139.9% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 601,250 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $13,769,000 after acquiring an additional 350,650 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Down 0.6%

SATS traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.76. 193,670 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,954,651. EchoStar Corporation has a 12-month low of $14.79 and a 12-month high of $33.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $23.71 and a 200 day moving average of $25.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -38.34 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.90) by $0.19. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 1.37% and a negative return on equity of 1.08%. The company had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.40) EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $27.00 to $28.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $24.70.

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.