Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 1,383 Shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its position in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 93,390 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,383 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in EchoStar were worth $2,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of EchoStar by 251.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of EchoStar by 65.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,684 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 2,635 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $272,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at $328,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EchoStar Trading Down 4.5 %

SATS opened at $24.99 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.73 and a beta of 0.65. EchoStar Co. has a 1-year low of $12.66 and a 1-year high of $32.48.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 0.64% and a negative net margin of 15.51%. The company had revenue of $3.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. Analysts expect that EchoStar Co. will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on SATS shares. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.75.

EchoStar 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.