Gulf International Bank UK Ltd Purchases Shares of 7,224 EchoStar Corporation $SATS

Gulf International Bank UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,224 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $785,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. DLD Asset Management LP acquired a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $2,481,700,000. Icahn Carl C purchased a new position in EchoStar during the third quarter worth about $332,513,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in EchoStar by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,524,576 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $382,595,000 after buying an additional 48,671 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in EchoStar by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,744,438 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $133,205,000 after buying an additional 48,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at about $182,111,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SATS shares. New Street Research started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $161.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of EchoStar from $129.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Williams Trading set a $155.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of EchoStar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at EchoStar

In other news, CEO Hamid Akhavan sold 71,005 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.52, for a total value of $7,634,457.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 823,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $88,520,463.36. This represents a 7.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John Swieringa sold 50,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.58, for a total transaction of $5,688,995.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 253,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,796,505.30. This represents a 16.50% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 55.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS opened at $129.19 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.17, a current ratio of 0.30 and a quick ratio of 0.27. EchoStar Corporation has a 1-year low of $14.90 and a 1-year high of $147.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.58 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.95.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its earnings results on Saturday, May 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.65 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 4.80% and a negative net margin of 97.56%.During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.71) EPS. Equities analysts predict that EchoStar Corporation will post -3.79 EPS for the current year.

EchoStar Company Profile

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a global provider of satellite communication solutions, offering a suite of broadband and video delivery services to consumer, enterprise and government customers. The company operates two principal business segments: Broadband and Video. Through its Broadband segment, EchoStar delivers high-speed satellite internet access, managed network services and ground infrastructure for residential, commercial and rural markets. Its Video segment provides satellite fleet operations, teleport facilities and capacity-leasing services to video distributors and content providers.

In the Broadband segment, EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems division designs and manufactures satellite broadband equipment, including user terminals and gateways, and develops advanced network management technologies.