EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

by · The Markets Daily

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 11,500,000 shares, a drop of 20.5% from the September 15th total of 14,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SATS. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com upgraded EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Raymond James downgraded EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.00.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on EchoStar

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ:SATS traded up $0.63 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $25.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,686,642 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,820,959. The stock has a market cap of $7.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.00 and a beta of 0.71. The business’s fifty day moving average is $21.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.32. EchoStar has a 1 year low of $9.53 and a 1 year high of $30.08.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 negative net margin of 18.65% and a positive return on equity of 0.18%. The company 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 business posted $0.39 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that EchoStar will post -1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SATS. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 54.7% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,231 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in EchoStar by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 60,700 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 694.8% during the second 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 lifted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 183.6% during the first 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 during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in EchoStar by 3.2% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 69,602 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,240,000 after purchasing an additional 2,176 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About EchoStar

(Get Free Report)

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.

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