EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Price Target Raised to $87.00

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from $85.00 to $87.00 in a report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

SATS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on EchoStar in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of EchoStar from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.60.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS stock opened at $69.98 on Tuesday. 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 $20.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -66.65 and a beta of 0.94. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $14.90 and a 52 week high of $85.37. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.18.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.52) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total value of $58,740.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 154,835 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.20, for a total transaction of $12,572,602.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 432 shares in the company, valued at $35,078.40. This trade represents a 99.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 460,740 shares of company stock valued at $35,967,480. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. DLD Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter worth approximately $2,481,700,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $98,819,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $248,192,000 after buying an additional 1,201,672 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth $53,736,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at $42,464,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

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.