Gabelli Funds LLC Has $4.79 Million Holdings in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Gabelli Funds LLC decreased its stake in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 209,105 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 12,700 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $4,789,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in EchoStar by 251.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of EchoStar by 189.1% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,796 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $110,000 after buying an additional 3,137 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 65.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 2,635 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. increased its stake in EchoStar by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,773 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 701 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at about $204,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EchoStar Stock Performance

NASDAQ SATS opened at $21.75 on Friday. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.33. The stock has a market cap of $6.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.37 and a beta of 0.72. EchoStar Co. has a twelve month low of $13.52 and a twelve month high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last posted its 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 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, research analysts forecast that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, UBS Group raised their price objective on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.