EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after TD Cowen lowered their price target on the stock from $37.00 to $30.00. The stock had previously closed at $21.52, but opened at $21.03. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the stock. EchoStar shares last traded at $21.77, with a volume of 201,604 shares traded.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Raymond James lowered shares of EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, EchoStar presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Charles W. Ergen bought 1,551,355 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $28.04 per share, for a total transaction of $43,499,994.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 1,551,355 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,499,994.20. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 55.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in EchoStar by 238.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,707,909 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $195,338,000 after acquiring an additional 9,661,167 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in EchoStar by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,776,238 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $118,546,000 after acquiring an additional 62,674 shares in the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in EchoStar by 44.8% in the third quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 3,000,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $74,460,000 after acquiring an additional 927,695 shares in the last quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP boosted its stake in EchoStar by 20.4% in the first quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP now owns 2,505,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,703,000 after acquiring an additional 424,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in EchoStar by 51.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,243,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $39,961,000 after acquiring an additional 762,462 shares in the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EchoStar Stock Up 3.6 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $24.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.49 and a beta of 0.70.

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.