Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Raises Stock Holdings in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,081,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SATS. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of EchoStar by 125.3% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 694.8% in the 2nd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,466 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 183.6% in the 1st quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 2,269 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 1,469 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of SATS opened at $19.57 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $18.63 and a 200-day moving average of $16.52. The company has a market cap of $5.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.54 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.40. EchoStar Co. has a 1 year low of $9.53 and a 1 year high of $20.86.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -2.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on SATS. StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.00.

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.