American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 28,779 Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,992,060 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,779 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 1.10% of EchoStar worth $68,518,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of EchoStar by 251.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in EchoStar by 65.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,635 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in EchoStar by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,773 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new stake in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,000. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the third quarter worth $272,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $26.70 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $28.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.54. The firm has a market cap of $7.65 billion, a PE ratio of -2.91 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. EchoStar Co. has a 1-year low of $12.66 and a 1-year high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. The business had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. Research analysts predict that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SATS. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price target for the company. UBS Group increased their price target on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, EchoStar has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.75.

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.