Insider Selling: EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Director Sells 16,754 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Kathleen Abernathy, a director at EchoStar, sold 16,754 shares of stock at an average price of $82.35, totaling approximately $1.38 million.
• EchoStar's stock is currently trading at $77.04, declining by $2.85, with a market cap of $22.17 billion and a PE ratio of -73.37.
• Analysts have mixed views on EchoStar, with a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.90, indicating potential for growth despite recent earnings challenges.

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) Director Kathleen Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total transaction of $1,379,691.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

EchoStar Price Performance

SATS stock traded down $2.85 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $77.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,088,363 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,586,384. The stock has a market cap of $22.17 billion, a PE ratio of -73.37 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. EchoStar Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.90 and a fifty-two week high of $85.37. The company's 50 day moving average is $38.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.64.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. EchoStar's quarterly revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.76) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 31,594 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $875,000 after buying an additional 3,266 shares during the last quarter. Marex Group plc acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $947,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its holdings in EchoStar by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 103,871 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,878,000 after purchasing an additional 5,339 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its holdings in EchoStar by 23.8% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 14,815 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 2,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in EchoStar by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,839 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 978 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SATS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Friday, August 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.90.

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.

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