Intech Investment Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 196.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 77,704 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 51,488 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,779,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in EchoStar by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,589 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $536,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in EchoStar by 251.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 17,599 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,198 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 21,790 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in EchoStar by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 248,425 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,689,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SATS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, EchoStar currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.75.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SATS opened at $26.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of -2.89 and a beta of 0.65. EchoStar Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.66 and a fifty-two week high of $32.48. The company has a fifty day moving average of $27.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.32.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by $1.87. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. The firm had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EchoStar 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.