EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.00.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Raymond James cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $12.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in shares of EchoStar by 263.3% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 105,421 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,502,000 after acquiring an additional 76,407 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 8.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 285,519 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,069,000 after buying an additional 22,461 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at about $300,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $940,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in EchoStar by 247.2% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 235,025 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,349,000 after acquiring an additional 167,325 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of SATS opened at $25.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. EchoStar has a fifty-two week low of $9.53 and a fifty-two week high of $30.08. The company has a market cap of $7.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.00 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.34.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that EchoStar will post -1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.