Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 305,864 Shares of 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 13F filing with the SEC. The fund 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $328,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,033,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in EchoStar by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 248,425 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $5,689,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth $261,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of EchoStar by 196.4% in the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 77,704 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,779,000 after acquiring an additional 51,488 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Down 1.1%

SATS traded down $0.32 on Friday, reaching $28.61. 2,078,358 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,347,047. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $23.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.04. EchoStar Corporation has a 52-week low of $14.79 and a 52-week high of $33.04. The company has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.15 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.40) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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 company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target 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.