Morgan Stanley believes that EchoStar 's business gives it a leg up over other names in the U.S. wireless business. The bank upgraded shares of the telecommunications company to overweight from equal-weight. Analyst Benjamin Swinburne also lifted his price target to $110 from $82. Shares of EchoStar have surged 308% this year. Swinburne's new forecast represents additional upside of 18% ahead. SATS YTD mountain SATS YTD chart Swinburne cited increased value for EchoStar associated with announced spectrum sales to AT & T and SpaceX, which should respectively close by mid-year 2026 and in November 2027. "The value we are assigning to the cash proceeds of the announced spectrum sales in our YE26 PT is roughly 22% higher than our prior PT assumption," he wrote. "We are also raising our estimate for the value EchoStar will capture with its remaining AWS-3 spectrum licenses from $1.50 to $2.50 as we expect both Verizon and T-Mobile to be interested in this spectrum for their networks." The analyst also highlighted that EchoStar offers a strong hedge against broader competitive trends in the U.S. wireless industry, which is perhaps the primary concern for investors heading into 2026. But in some sense, EchoStar is "completely uncorrelated," he wrote, and could even stand to benefit from increased industry competition in the U.S. "As a seller of spectrum, SATS shares are either immune or stand to benefit from rising competition among U.S. wireless carriers, creating a unique risk/reward relative to the broader industry," Swinburne added. EchoStar shares rose more than 4% following the upgrade.
