132,431 Shares in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Acquired by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 132,431 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,033,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 251.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 65.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,635 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,773 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 701 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $261,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $23.75.

EchoStar Stock Down 1.0 %

SATS traded down $0.22 on Wednesday, hitting $22.48. 1,226,983 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,735,774. The stock's fifty day moving average is $25.10 and its 200-day moving average is $25.18. EchoStar Co. has a 12 month low of $14.40 and a 12 month high of $32.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $6.44 billion, a PE ratio of -2.45 and a beta of 0.72.

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

EchoStar Company Profile

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.