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AP
EchoStar Rises With Upgrade to "Buy"
Monday November 19, 6:44 pm ET
EchoStar Shares Rise After Analyst Upgrades to "Buy" on Valuation, Chances of AT&T Buyout

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of EchoStar Communications Corp. rose Monday after an analyst upgraded the stock to "Buy" on its valuation and speculation that AT&T Inc. will purchase the satellite television operator within a year.

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EchoStar shares rose $7.66, or 19.2 percent, to $47.49 Monday. In the past year, the stock has traded between $35.16 and $52.54.

In a note to clients Monday, Citi Investment Research analyst Jason Bazinet raised his EchoStar rating from "Hold" and kept his $52 price target.

Bazinet said EchoStar's shares are poised to rise in the wake of a recent sell-off and he believes there is a 65 percent chance AT&T will buy the company in the next 12 months.

The analyst believes EchoStar's shares may have been affected by its churn rate, which rose to 1.9 percent during the third quarter. The churn rate refers to the number or percentage of customers who stopped service in the previous period.

Bazinet thinks subprime mortgage woes are impacting EchoStar's churn rate.

"We think the market has more than priced in the higher churn concerns, but is not factoring in the likelihood of AT&T buying EchoStar," he wrote.