EchoStar Corporation $SATS Stock Position Raised by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 42,922 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,189,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in EchoStar by 18.6% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 13,528 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after acquiring an additional 2,119 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. increased its position in EchoStar by 10.5% during the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 39,906 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,105,000 after buying an additional 3,801 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 65.9% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 20,797 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 8,259 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 12.9% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 442,494 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $12,257,000 after buying an additional 50,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 13.1% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 208,982 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,789,000 after acquiring an additional 24,132 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Trading Up 11.2%

Shares of SATS stock opened at $103.98 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.93 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.32 and a beta of 1.03. EchoStar Corporation has a 1 year low of $14.90 and a 1 year high of $105.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly 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). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.52) earnings per share. EchoStar’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SATS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Research lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen raised their target price 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 target price on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.40.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 233,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $17,625,721.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,392,256.75. This represents a 38.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Paul Gaske sold 750 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.32, for a total value of $58,740.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 266,151 shares of company stock worth $19,885,417. Company insiders own 55.90% 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.