Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Increases Stock Holdings in EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) by 18.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,868 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,954 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in EchoStar were worth $432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SATS. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at about $408,000. Moment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of EchoStar during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of EchoStar by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,737,733 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $314,594,000 after purchasing an additional 88,488 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC purchased a new stake in EchoStar in the fourth quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of EchoStar in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $616,000. 33.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

EchoStar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SATS opened at $23.44 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. EchoStar Co. has a 52 week low of $13.00 and a 52 week high of $32.48. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $27.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.48. The firm has a market cap of $6.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.56 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on SATS shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $15.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on EchoStar in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $25.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, EchoStar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.