New York, June 11, 2026, 13:58 EDT
- EchoStar shares were up around 9.1% to $125.67 as traders looked to the SpaceX IPO.
- SpaceX is seen raising about $75 billion at a $1.8 trillion valuation, Reuters said, citing a planned Nasdaq debut Friday.
- EchoStar’s shares are still moving on what investors think about its spectrum deals with SpaceX and AT&T, while its old pay-TV and broadband units keep facing pressure.
EchoStar Corporation (SATS) jumped Thursday afternoon, catching attention as the satellite and telecom stock climbed while SpaceX’s debut loomed. SATS last traded at $125.67 at 13:58 EDT, up $10.43. Shares moved between $115.98 and $126.58 on volume topping 10.3 million. The market cap is now close to $36.3 billion.
SpaceX’s push toward an IPO has drawn investor attention, with Reuters saying Thursday that BlackRock looked to buy at least $5 billion of the shares. Reuters cited the Wall Street Journal, which reported the order book shut on Wednesday before planned Nasdaq trading on Friday. Reuters also said it hadn’t been able to confirm the WSJ story itself.
EchoStar is now in play for the SpaceX trade after cutting spectrum deals with the Musk firm. Last September, EchoStar said it would sell AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses to SpaceX for around $17 billion—half cash, half SpaceX stock. The deal also has SpaceX picking up about $2 billion in EchoStar debt interest payments through November 2027.
Exposure kept growing. In November, EchoStar said it had changed its deal and would sell its unpaired AWS-3 licenses to SpaceX for about $2.6 billion in SpaceX stock. That comes on top of the earlier AWS-4 and H-block deal. The moves tie SATS sentiment even more to where traders see SpaceX value going.
The proxy has swung around. Barron’s said Thursday that some investors saw EchoStar as a cheaper SpaceX bet, but noted risks like profit-taking, what happens to demand if SpaceX lists, and when EchoStar actually gets its SpaceX shares. Barron’s also said TD Cowen analyst Greg Williams recently put EchoStar’s value at $155 a share.
SpaceX drew more analyst calls, with Reuters saying Thursday that Oppenheimer started coverage with an “outperform” and put the target at $190—roughly 41% higher than the indicated $135 IPO price. Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan wrote that SpaceX was the “only vertically integrated AI company with the required capital, data, LLMs, hardware, manufacturing and engineering talent.” New Street Research put its target at $165, and Morningstar gave SpaceX a $780 billion valuation, Reuters said, which is less than half the company’s IPO goal. Reuters
EchoStar traded out of step with major indexes. By 11:53 a.m. ET, Reuters reported the Dow was up 0.54%, S&P 500 up 0.26%, and Nasdaq Composite up 0.41%. The communication services sector dropped 1.8% as Alphabet and Meta shares slipped.
EchoStar’s balance-sheet moves go beyond the SpaceX deal. In August, the company agreed to sell 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz spectrum licenses to AT&T for about $23 billion. EchoStar also said Boost Mobile will keep running as a hybrid mobile network operator, using its own cloud-native 5G core alongside AT&T cell sites.
FCC signs off on EchoStar’s $40 billion spectrum sale to SpaceX, AT&T U.S. regulators gave approval last month for EchoStar’s sale of wireless spectrum, a deal worth about $40 billion, to SpaceX and AT&T, according to Reuters on May 12. The Federal Communications Commission said this should improve connectivity nationwide.
EchoStar’s numbers show continued strain for the core business. The company posted first-quarter revenue at $3.67 billion, down from $3.87 billion last year. Net loss came in at $146.89 million, an improvement from $202.67 million. Pay-TV subscribers dropped roughly 366,000. Broadband customers shrank by about 58,000, while retail wireless added 16,000.
EchoStar is now more relevant to index watchers than it was earlier this year. S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would add EchoStar to the S&P 500 before the open on March 23, in the communication services category, as part of the index’s quarterly reshuffle. With this move, SATS is now part of one of the most widely followed U.S. equity benchmarks. Traders are watching to see if SpaceX’s debut changes how investors look for indirect exposure.
