Investors Buy Large Volume of EchoStar Call Options (NASDAQ:SATS)

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 28,395 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,124% compared to the average volume of 2,320 call options.

EchoStar Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of SATS traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $26.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 897,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,779,075. EchoStar has a 52 week low of $9.53 and a 52 week high of $27.15. The stock has a market cap of $7.17 billion, a PE ratio of -3.53 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $20.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by ($0.39). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 18.65% and a positive return on equity of 0.18%. The company had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that EchoStar will post -1.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SATS. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of EchoStar by 125.3% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in EchoStar by 1.8% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 60,700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 694.8% during the second quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 1,466 shares during the period. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 183.6% during the 1st quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 2,269 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 1,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 69,602 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,240,000 after buying an additional 2,176 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SATS. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EchoStar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.00.

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.