Squarepoint Ops LLC Invests $348,000 in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 19,526 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $348,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 238.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,707,909 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $195,338,000 after purchasing an additional 9,661,167 shares during the last quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP grew its holdings in EchoStar by 20.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP now owns 2,505,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,703,000 after acquiring an additional 424,259 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in EchoStar by 51.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,243,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,961,000 after acquiring an additional 762,462 shares during the last quarter. Monarch Alternative Capital LP bought a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth about $21,375,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in EchoStar by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,001,832 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $17,843,000 after acquiring an additional 29,577 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on SATS. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Raymond James downgraded shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.00.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS stock opened at $25.48 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.30 and a beta of 0.71. EchoStar Co. has a 52 week low of $9.53 and a 52 week high of $30.08. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $21.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.40.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by ($0.39). The business had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.98 billion. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 0.18% and a negative net margin of 18.65%. EchoStar’s revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.