EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Sold by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

Handelsbanken Fonder AB reduced its position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 12.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,042 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,500 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in EchoStar by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 585,990 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,419,000 after buying an additional 16,999 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in EchoStar by 309.6% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 133,108 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,048,000 after buying an additional 100,608 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in EchoStar by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 344,188 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,882,000 after buying an additional 19,772 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in EchoStar by 65.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 2,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in EchoStar by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 17,599 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 1,198 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on SATS. UBS Group upped their target price on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com upgraded EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, November 9th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.75.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS opened at $31.23 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.49 billion, a PE ratio of -3.41 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. EchoStar Co. has a twelve month low of $11.83 and a twelve month high of $31.59. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.45.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. The company had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

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.