Covestor Ltd Acquires 7,159 Shares of EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) by 105.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,957 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,159 shares during the period. EchoStar makes up 0.6% of Covestor Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,066,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Darsana Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of EchoStar by 15.5% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $248,192,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,672 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the third quarter worth approximately $42,464,000. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 6,942.9% in the third quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 522,022 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,862,000 after purchasing an additional 514,610 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in EchoStar by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $95,553,000 after purchasing an additional 355,009 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in EchoStar by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,268,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,139,000 after buying an additional 313,314 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

SATS opened at $122.50 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $35.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.73 and a beta of 1.02. EchoStar Corporation has a 1-year low of $14.90 and a 1-year high of $132.25.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The firm 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 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.52) earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at EchoStar

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 trade represents a 43.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 55.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on SATS. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Williams Trading set a $158.00 target price on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.17.

About EchoStar

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a global provider of satellite communication solutions, offering a suite of broadband and video delivery services to consumer, enterprise and government customers. The company operates two principal business segments: Broadband and Video. Through its Broadband segment, EchoStar delivers high-speed satellite internet access, managed network services and ground infrastructure for residential, commercial and rural markets. Its Video segment provides satellite fleet operations, teleport facilities and capacity-leasing services to video distributors and content providers.

In the Broadband segment, EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems division designs and manufactures satellite broadband equipment, including user terminals and gateways, and develops advanced network management technologies.