EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Down to $13.04

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $13.04, but opened at $12.70. EchoStar shares last traded at $13.14, with a volume of 81,337 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SATS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $23.00.

EchoStar Price Performance

The firm's 50-day moving average is $13.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.73. The company has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.95 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 732.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -1.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James Defranco acquired 110,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.48 per share, with a total value of $1,482,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 306,951 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,137,699.48. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 55.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of EchoStar

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 26.9% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 18,851 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 3,998 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 43.3% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 31,969 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $778,000 after acquiring an additional 9,655 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 3.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,193,659 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $77,734,000 after acquiring an additional 93,524 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 3.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,688,661 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $41,102,000 after acquiring an additional 63,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 2,809.6% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,470 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $133,000 after acquiring an additional 5,282 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.