Retirement Systems of Alabama Invests $3.76 Million in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

Retirement Systems of Alabama purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 147,056 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,762,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.05% of EchoStar as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in EchoStar by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,737,733 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $314,594,000 after acquiring an additional 88,488 shares during the period. Darsana Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in EchoStar by 133.3% during the 4th 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 period. Diameter Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 523.7% during the 4th 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. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,992,060 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $68,518,000 after purchasing an additional 28,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pennant Investors LP boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Pennant Investors LP now owns 2,417,837 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $55,368,000 after purchasing an additional 97,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Up 13.2%

NASDAQ SATS traded up $3.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,328,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,250,226. EchoStar Corporation has a 52 week low of $14.79 and a 52 week high of $32.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a PE ratio of -38.41 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $21.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.32.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.71) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.40) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Citigroup increased their price objective 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 analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $24.70.

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.