Morgan Stanley Boosts EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Price Target to $20.00

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $14.00 to $20.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on SATS. StockNews.com raised shares of EchoStar to a sell rating in a report 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. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $23.00.

EchoStar Trading Up 8.9 %

Shares of SATS stock opened at $26.44 on Friday. EchoStar has a 52-week low of $9.53 and a 52-week high of $27.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.18 billion, a PE ratio of -3.47 and a beta of 0.70. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.20.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 9th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.76) 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that EchoStar will post -1.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in EchoStar by 238.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,707,909 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $195,338,000 after acquiring an additional 9,661,167 shares in the last quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 20.4% during the first quarter. Goldentree Asset Management LP now owns 2,505,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,703,000 after buying an additional 424,259 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of EchoStar by 51.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,243,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $39,961,000 after buying an additional 762,462 shares during the period. Pennant Select LLC purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,892,000. Finally, Pennant Investors LP purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,679,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

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.