EchoStar Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:SATS)

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders acquired 32,790 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 68% compared to the typical volume of 19,479 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John Swieringa sold 50,088 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.58, for a total transaction of $5,688,995.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 253,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,796,505.30. This trade represents a 16.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 71,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.52, for a total value of $7,634,457.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 823,293 shares in the company, valued at $88,520,463.36. The trade was a 7.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 55.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Junto Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $55,199,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $28,994,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $780,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $20,459,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 3,009.8% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 196,292 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $22,332,000 after purchasing an additional 189,980 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

EchoStar stock traded down $2.11 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $134.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,454,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,090,892. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $14.90 and a 52 week high of $147.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $121.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.69. The stock has a market cap of $38.81 billion, a PE ratio of -2.68 and a beta of 0.95.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.03). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 97.56% and a negative return on equity of 4.80%. The business had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.71) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that EchoStar will post -2.51 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on SATS. Citigroup raised their price target on EchoStar from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Williams Trading set a $155.00 price target on EchoStar in a research report on Monday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.14.

EchoStar Company Profile

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.