EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a "sell" rating on the stock.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, Director James Defranco purchased 70,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.14 per share, for a total transaction of $919,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 176,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,325,136.14. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of SATS. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $126,000. Gladius Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $134,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 150.2% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 9,439 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 5,666 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

EchoStar Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS traded up $0.24 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $15.30. 1,496,975 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,410,594. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $13.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.45. EchoStar has a 52-week low of $9.53 and a 52-week high of $24.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.20 and a beta of 0.69.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 negative net margin of 36.33% and a positive return on equity of 5.24%. The firm had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that EchoStar will post -1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.