EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The company traded as high as $111.39 and last traded at $106.0220, with a volume of 1297202 shares. The stock had previously closed at $102.59.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on SATS. Zacks Research lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $131.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, EchoStar presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.60.

EchoStar Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $77.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The company has a market capitalization of $30.35 billion, a PE ratio of -2.35 and a beta of 1.03.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.52) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other EchoStar news, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. The trade was a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total transaction of $30,106,684.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,688,870.65. This represents a 43.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. DLD Asset Management LP bought a new stake in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $2,481,700,000. Icahn Carl C purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $332,513,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $98,819,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 15.5% during the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $248,192,000 after buying an additional 1,201,672 shares during the period. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP bought a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter worth about $55,199,000. 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.