Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Lowers Stock Position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 20.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,433,350 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 608,185 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.90% of EchoStar worth $55,724,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in EchoStar by 251.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at $328,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in EchoStar by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 69,076 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 16,253 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in EchoStar by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,019,809 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $23,354,000 after purchasing an additional 133,819 shares during the period. Finally, Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the 4th quarter worth $2,404,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.75.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SATS opened at $26.39 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.88 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.61. EchoStar Co. has a 1-year low of $12.36 and a 1-year high of $32.48.

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

EchoStar 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.