Prudential Financial Inc. Has $2.83 Million Stock Position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 123,573 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,450 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $2,830,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. Xponance Inc. grew its stake in EchoStar by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,773 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 701 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in EchoStar by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,589 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in EchoStar by 251.3% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in EchoStar by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 17,599 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $403,000 after buying an additional 1,198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 248,425 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,689,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

EchoStar Trading Up 4.4 %

NASDAQ:SATS opened at $26.29 on Thursday. EchoStar Co. has a 52 week low of $12.66 and a 52 week high of $32.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.66. 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 firm has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.87 and a beta of 0.65.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. The business had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. On average, equities analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on SATS shares. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.75.

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.