EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.75.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 251.3% during the fourth 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 period. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 8,906.7% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 189.1% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,796 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 3,137 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 65.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $26.39 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.07. EchoStar has a 52-week low of $12.36 and a 52-week high of $32.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.88 and a beta of 0.65.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. The firm had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

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.