Retirement Systems of Alabama Purchases New Holdings in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

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

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 567 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in EchoStar by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,773 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the last quarter. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co. LLC now owns 47,604 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 941 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 8,125.0% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 987 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 975 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 39.6% in the 1st 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. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

EchoStar Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of SATS traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $25.46. The stock had a trading volume of 2,794,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,208,114. EchoStar Corporation has a 1-year low of $14.79 and a 1-year high of $32.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.95 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.26. 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 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 return on equity of 1.08% and a negative net margin of 1.37%. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.40) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.