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

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 11,500,000 shares, a decrease of 20.5% from the September 15th total of 14,470,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SATS. Quarry LP acquired a new position in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth approximately $197,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp acquired a new stake in EchoStar during the 1st quarter worth approximately $585,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its position in EchoStar by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 28,924 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 4,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unison Advisors LLC acquired a new position in EchoStar in the 1st quarter worth $325,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

EchoStar Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of EchoStar stock traded down $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $24.95. 2,110,846 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,278,254. EchoStar has a twelve month low of $9.53 and a twelve month high of $30.08. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $21.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by ($0.39). The company had revenue of $3.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.98 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 18.65% and a positive return on equity of 0.18%. The business’s revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that EchoStar will post -1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

EchoStar Company Profile

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.