HB Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in EchoStar Corporation $SATS

HB Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,835 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $369,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 15.5% during the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $248,192,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,672 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $42,464,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 11.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $95,553,000 after purchasing an additional 355,009 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the second quarter valued at about $9,541,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,268,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,139,000 after buying an additional 313,314 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SATS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $82.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Williams Trading set a $158.00 target price on EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. UBS Group increased their target price on EchoStar from $28.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on EchoStar from $97.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.17.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SATS opened at $123.55 on Friday. EchoStar Corporation has a 12-month low of $14.90 and a 12-month high of $132.25. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $93.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.42. The firm has a market cap of $35.57 billion, a PE ratio of -2.75 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total transaction of $1,481,480.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 283,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. This represents a 7.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $30,106,684.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $39,688,870.65. The trade was a 43.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Profile

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a global provider of satellite communication solutions, offering a suite of broadband and video delivery services to consumer, enterprise and government customers. The company operates two principal business segments: Broadband and Video. Through its Broadband segment, EchoStar delivers high-speed satellite internet access, managed network services and ground infrastructure for residential, commercial and rural markets. Its Video segment provides satellite fleet operations, teleport facilities and capacity-leasing services to video distributors and content providers.

In the Broadband segment, EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems division designs and manufactures satellite broadband equipment, including user terminals and gateways, and develops advanced network management technologies.