Atika Capital Management LLC Takes $4.34 Million Position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Atika Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 189,360 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,336,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SATS. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of EchoStar by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,589 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 772 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in EchoStar by 69.5% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 28,254 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $701,000 after buying an additional 11,586 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in EchoStar by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,776,238 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $118,546,000 after acquiring an additional 62,674 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the third quarter valued at $1,230,000. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter worth about $272,000. 33.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EchoStar Trading Down 7.7 %

Shares of SATS stock opened at $21.53 on Friday. EchoStar Co. has a 12-month low of $13.00 and a 12-month high of $32.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $27.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $6.17 billion, a PE ratio of -2.35 and a beta of 0.72.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The communications equipment provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by $1.87. The business had revenue of $3.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.93 billion. EchoStar had a negative return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. As a group, analysts predict that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SATS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on EchoStar in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.