Insider Selling: EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) COO Sells $12,572,602.00 in Stock

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) COO John Swieringa sold 154,835 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.20, for a total transaction of $12,572,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 432 shares in the company, valued at $35,078.40. This represents a 99.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

EchoStar Trading Down 2.8%

EchoStar stock opened at $74.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.22. The firm has a market cap of $21.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -71.32 and a beta of 0.99. EchoStar Corporation has a 1 year low of $14.90 and a 1 year high of $85.37. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $39.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.29.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.76) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on SATS. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Tuesday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.90.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 8,125.0% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 987 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 975 shares during the period. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 44.5% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,841 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 567 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 2nd quarter valued at $73,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,441 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 976 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.