EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $14.00 to $20.00. The stock had previously closed at $24.27, but opened at $25.26. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. EchoStar shares last traded at $26.73, with a volume of 302,897 shares traded.

SATS has been the subject of several other reports. StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Two 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. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in EchoStar by 125.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,466 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted 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 worth $32,000 after buying an additional 1,469 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.04 billion, a PE ratio of -3.43 and a beta of 0.70. 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 (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $3.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. EchoStar’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.64 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.