EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives $24.80 Average Price Target from Analysts

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the five brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $24.80.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on EchoStar in a report on Thursday. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price objective on EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $18.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th.

EchoStar Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:SATS traded up $0.24 on Friday, reaching $14.25. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,347,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,988,245. EchoStar has a 12-month low of $9.53 and a 12-month high of $24.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $3.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.05 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $13.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.87.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $1.19. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 5.24% and a negative net margin of 36.33%. The company had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. EchoStar's revenue for the quarter was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that EchoStar will post -1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James Defranco purchased 110,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of $13.48 per share, for a total transaction of $1,482,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 306,951 shares in the company, valued at $4,137,699.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 55.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 126.6% during the 2nd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,448 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 95.0% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,827 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

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.