Polianta Ltd Acquires New Stake in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Polianta Ltd bought a new stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,527,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Darsana Capital Partners LP grew its holdings 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 worth $248,192,000 after buying an additional 1,201,672 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in EchoStar by 11.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $95,553,000 after acquiring an additional 355,009 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,541,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in EchoStar by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,699,986 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,486,000 after acquiring an additional 343,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $35,139,000 after purchasing an additional 313,314 shares during the period. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SATS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup lifted their price target on EchoStar from $87.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $97.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.80.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS opened at $107.25 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.88 billion, a PE ratio of -2.39 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.56. EchoStar Corporation has a 12 month low of $14.90 and a 12 month high of $111.39.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released 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). The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.52) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at EchoStar

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $30,106,684.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,688,870.65. This represents a 43.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer owned 283,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 55.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.