Polianta Ltd Acquires Shares of 20,000 EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Polianta Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 20,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,527,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SATS. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 15.5% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 8,960,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $248,192,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,672 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,449,193 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $95,553,000 after buying an additional 355,009 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in EchoStar by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,699,986 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,486,000 after buying an additional 343,590 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in EchoStar by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,268,572 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,139,000 after buying an additional 313,314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of EchoStar by 30.1% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 913,292 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,298,000 after acquiring an additional 211,421 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on SATS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on EchoStar from $97.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of EchoStar in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $87.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EchoStar has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total transaction of $30,106,684.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $39,688,870.65. This represents a 43.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 22,000 shares of EchoStar stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.34, for a total value of $1,481,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 283,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,091,496.06. The trade was a 7.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 55.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

EchoStar Stock Performance

SATS stock opened at $107.25 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.73. EchoStar Corporation has a 12-month low of $14.90 and a 12-month high of $111.39. The firm has a market cap of $30.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.39 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.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The business had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.52) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

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.