EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) Shares Sold by Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS - Free Report) by 83.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,836 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 19,355 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC's holdings in EchoStar were worth $88,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,737,733 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $314,594,000 after acquiring an additional 88,488 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in EchoStar by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,992,060 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $68,518,000 after purchasing an additional 28,779 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,301,367 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $52,701,000 after purchasing an additional 474,313 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of EchoStar by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,019,809 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $23,354,000 after buying an additional 133,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of EchoStar by 139.9% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 601,250 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $13,769,000 after buying an additional 350,650 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EchoStar currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $23.75.

EchoStar Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ SATS opened at $21.31 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.33 and a beta of 0.72. EchoStar Co. has a 12 month low of $14.40 and a 12 month high of $32.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $25.97 and a 200-day moving average of $25.29.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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