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

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) 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.

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) 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

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.