Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 4.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 594,762 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 30,845 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $10,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 802 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,466 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,469 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS opened at $22.40 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.83. EchoStar Co. has a 12-month low of $9.53 and a 12-month high of $23.05. The firm has a market cap of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.91 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by ($0.39). EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 0.18% and a negative net margin of 18.65%. The company had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. EchoStar’s revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that EchoStar Co. will post -1.64 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on SATS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.00.

EchoStar Company 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.