American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stake in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,992,060 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 28,779 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.10% of EchoStar worth $68,518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 46,767 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $1,161,000 after buying an additional 4,626 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in EchoStar by 9.8% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 21,790 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at approximately $651,000. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in EchoStar by 32.7% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 164,534 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $4,084,000 after purchasing an additional 40,533 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $383,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

EchoStar Stock Performance

Shares of EchoStar stock traded down $1.17 during trading on Friday, reaching $24.99. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,645,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,669,683. The firm has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a PE ratio of -2.73 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $28.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.60. 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 fifty-two week low of $12.66 and a fifty-two week high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.63) by $1.87. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 15.51% and a negative return on equity of 0.64%. The company had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. On average, analysts forecast that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SATS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Two 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $23.75.

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.