EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $82.00, but opened at $86.05. EchoStar shares last traded at $88.3990, with a volume of 1,972,489 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on SATS. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on EchoStar from $59.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.60.

EchoStar Stock Up 7.3%

The stock has a market cap of $25.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.96 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.31 and its 200 day moving average is $49.97.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The business had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.52) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kathleen Q. Abernathy sold 16,754 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.35, for a total transaction of $1,379,691.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 154,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.20, for a total transaction of $12,572,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,078.40. This trade represents a 99.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 437,740 shares of company stock valued at $33,837,710. Corporate insiders own 55.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators bought a new position in EchoStar during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 79.1% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 593.2% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 922 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 2nd quarter worth about $73,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

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.