Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Boosts Stock Holdings in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 30.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 69,076 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,253 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $1,582,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. Creative Planning increased its stake in EchoStar by 42.1% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 35,395 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $878,000 after buying an additional 10,491 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at approximately $285,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 11.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,767 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,626 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 5.4% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 324,416 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,052,000 after acquiring an additional 16,595 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 9.8% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 21,790 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after acquiring an additional 1,942 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of SATS opened at $31.23 on Friday. EchoStar Co. has a twelve month low of $11.83 and a twelve month high of $31.59. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $26.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a PE ratio of -3.41 and a beta of 0.72. 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 (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by $1.87. The business had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. Research analysts anticipate that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on EchoStar from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group upped their price target on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on EchoStar in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 9th. Two investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.75.

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.