EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Gap Up on Insider Buying Activity

EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Friday following insider buying activity. The stock had previously closed at $21.99, but opened at $23.27. EchoStar shares last traded at $23.01, with a volume of 297,812 shares traded.

Specifically, Chairman Charles W. Ergen bought 1,551,355 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $28.04 per share, with a total value of $43,499,994.20. Following the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 1,551,355 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,499,994.20. This represents a ? increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James cut EchoStar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 9th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on EchoStar from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.25.

EchoStar Trading Up 3.6 %

The stock has a market cap of $6.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.49 and a beta of 0.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.32.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 238.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,707,909 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $195,338,000 after purchasing an additional 9,661,167 shares during the last quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,908,000. Monarch Alternative Capital LP acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 1st quarter valued at about $21,375,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 51.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,243,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $39,961,000 after acquiring an additional 762,462 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Apollo Management Holdings L.P. acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the first quarter worth approximately $10,507,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.