EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Sold by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 248,888 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 19,671 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.09% of EchoStar worth $5,700,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,992,060 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $68,518,000 after buying an additional 28,779 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,301,367 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $52,701,000 after buying an additional 474,313 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in EchoStar by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,019,809 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $23,354,000 after acquiring an additional 133,819 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its holdings in EchoStar by 139.9% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $24.09. The company had a trading volume of 731,017 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,730,402. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $24.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.14. The stock has a market cap of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.63 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.61. EchoStar Co. has a twelve month low of $14.40 and a twelve month high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. The firm had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. On average, research analysts predict that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $23.75.

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.