Analysts Set EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) PT at $23.75

Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $23.75.

SATS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in EchoStar by 251.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 8,906.7% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,053 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in EchoStar by 189.1% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,796 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 3,137 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in EchoStar by 65.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SATS opened at $26.50 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $7.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.89 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.32. EchoStar has a twelve month low of $12.66 and a twelve month high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that EchoStar will post -1.99 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.