Brokerages Set EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Target Price at $23.00

Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

SATS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Saturday, April 13th. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on EchoStar from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on EchoStar from $39.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS opened at $16.00 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.30 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.53. EchoStar has a 12 month low of $9.53 and a 12 month high of $24.80.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $1.19. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 5.24% and a negative net margin of 36.33%. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. EchoStar’s revenue was up 732.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other EchoStar news, Director James Defranco purchased 70,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $13.14 per share, with a total value of $919,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 176,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,325,136.14. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,465,583 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $58,049,000 after purchasing an additional 33,451 shares during the period. Pennant Select LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter worth about $36,892,000. Beryl Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,090,000. Pennant Investors LP purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter worth about $35,679,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,095,327 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $18,150,000 after purchasing an additional 383,030 shares during the period. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.