What Hedge Funds Think About Echostar Corporation (SATS)

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of methods shareholders can use to track stocks. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a significant margin (see just how much).

Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

Equally as useful, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are many incentives for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

What’s more, we’re going to analyze the newest info surrounding Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS).

Hedge fund activity in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 28 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 12% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our 13F database, Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital had the biggest position in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS), worth close to $80.9 million, accounting for 2.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Glenn Russell Dubin of Highbridge Capital Management, with a $69.9 million position; 0.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies with similar optimism include Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management, Michael Doheny’s Freshford Capital Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

With a general bullishness amongst the titans, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Kensico Capital, managed by Michael Lowenstein, established the biggest position in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS). Kensico Capital had 80.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also made a $69.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management, Michael Doheny’s Freshford Capital Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

How have insiders been trading Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time period, Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also examine the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS). These stocks are Exelis Inc (NYSE:XLS), ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT), Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) (NYSE:ALU), and JDS Uniphase Corp (NASDAQ:JDSU). This group of stocks are in the communication equipment industry and their market caps match SATS’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
Exelis Inc (NYSE:XLS) 24 0 0
ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) 13 0 0
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) 17 0 0
Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) (NYSE:ALU) 15 0 0
JDS Uniphase Corp (NASDAQ:JDSU) 20 0 0

Using the returns demonstrated by the previously mentioned analyses, regular investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) is no exception.

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