Insider Selling: EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) CEO Sells 285,832 Shares of Stock

by · The Cerbat Gem

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS – Get Free Report) CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 285,832 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total transaction of $30,106,684.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 376,805 shares in the company, valued at $39,688,870.65. The trade was a 43.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS traded down $3.44 on Monday, hitting $103.93. 4,880,302 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,941,318. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $76.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.36. EchoStar Corporation has a 52-week low of $14.90 and a 52-week high of $111.00. The company has a market capitalization of $29.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The communications equipment provider reported ($44.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.23) by ($43.14). The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 85.36% and a positive return on equity of 0.39%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.52) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that EchoStar Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SATS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised EchoStar from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, August 27th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $105.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.40.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on EchoStar

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 11.1% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,665 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 0.5% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 58,941 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $4,501,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 0.8% in the third quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 37,456 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,860,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in EchoStar by 23.1% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,875 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 79.1% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the period. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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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