Monarch Alternative Capital LP Buys Shares of 1,500,000 EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS)

Monarch Alternative Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of EchoStar Co. (NASDAQ:SATS) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,500,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $21,375,000. EchoStar comprises about 9.5% of Monarch Alternative Capital LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in EchoStar by 446.2% during the first quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 11,994 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 9,798 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in EchoStar by 120.3% in the 1st quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 17,954 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 9,806 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in EchoStar by 162.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 99,968 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,425,000 after buying an additional 61,871 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in EchoStar by 1,932.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 51,127 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $728,000 after buying an additional 48,611 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its stake in EchoStar by 10.9% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 570,401 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,128,000 after buying an additional 56,105 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.62% of the company’s stock.

EchoStar Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of EchoStar stock traded down $0.68 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $19.63. 548,991 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,864,393. The firm has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a PE ratio of -2.55 and a beta of 0.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $18.56 and its 200 day moving average is $15.93. EchoStar Co. has a 1 year low of $9.53 and a 1 year high of $24.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.44.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.40) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $4.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.07 billion. EchoStar had a positive return on equity of 2.26% and a negative net margin of 23.47%. EchoStar’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EchoStar Co. will post -1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SATS shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $14.25 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded EchoStar to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.00.

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.