EchoStar Dishes Up Value
By Phil Wohl
November 9, 2004
The trend toward parking ourselves in front of a television and not moving until "natural" needs take over has heightened. As an EchoStar Communications (Nasdaq: DISH) DISH Network subscriber, I have enjoyed the clear sound and picture of satellite television, but I now have even more reason to sit still like a rock.
For months now, I have been enjoying the sounds of Sirius Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) on my dish. I click on the commercial-free music programming about as much as I watch reality programs and my favorite new show, Lost. I also discovered (with the help of my son) an arcade-style golf game on Channel 100 the other day; in truth, I shot 83 over par the first round and then improved to a sizzling 61 over the par-72 course.
The key to EchoStar's future is subscriber and market-share growth; in the third quarter, DISH Network added 350,000 subscribers and serviced a total of 10.5 million customers. The company and its main satellite competitor, DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), have been gaining momentum and market share in recent quarters and have been, frankly, making cable operators such as Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) a little nervous.
The company's results for the third quarter were a mixed bag: Total revenue of $1.86 billion was 28% more than last year's revenue ($1.45 billion) and 2.8% ahead of the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion; and earnings of $0.22 per share widely beat last year's earnings of $0.07 per share but were a cent behind the analysts' consensus estimate of $0.23. EchoStar also announced a one-time stock dividend of $1 per outstanding Class A and Class B common share.
EchoStar has been traditionally categorized as a growth stock, but it appears the winds of valuation have shifted. Trading at only 19 times the 2005 earnings estimate of $1.61 per share, the shares appear to be attractive relative to the company's long-term growth rate of 30%.
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