EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Down to $17.35

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $17.35, but opened at $15.28. EchoStar shares last traded at $15.27, with a volume of 1,045,246 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SATS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their price target on EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Saturday, April 13th. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.00.

EchoStar Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.41 and a 200 day moving average of $13.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $4.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.17 and a beta of 0.62.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $1.19. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 36.33% and a positive return on equity of 5.24%. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 732.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James Defranco bought 110,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $13.48 per share, with a total value of $1,482,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 306,951 shares in the company, valued at $4,137,699.48. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 55.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pennant Select LLC purchased a new position in EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at $36,892,000. Beryl Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,090,000. Pennant Investors LP purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,679,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 4,541.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 639,094 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,590,000 after acquiring an additional 625,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the third quarter valued at approximately $10,155,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% 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.