The satellite industry is heading towards consolidation, but one of the companies that should be a part of its future is EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a technology leader that has been falling in price with its sector the past two days.

The company stands out for offering broadband services profitably, while other satellite operators have struggled to do so. EchoStar also has more than $33 billion in cash to make acquisitions that would position the company for further growth under the leadership of its Chairman Charlie Ergen, a self-made billionaire.

With just $389 million in net debt at the end of 2017, EchoStar is rated an “outperform” technology stock by Raymond James & Associates, which recently raised its price target on the stock by $1 to $74. The company’s key assets are its Germantown, Maryland-based Hughes Network Systems broadband unit, its EchoStar Satellite Services video distribution business, its stake in pay-television venture DISH Mexico and newly deployed satellites that include the recently launched EchoStar 21.

Ric Prentiss, the analyst who tracks the stock for Raymond James, wrote in a Feb. 23 research note after EchoStar held its fourth-quarter and year-end 2018 earnings call that the company’s underlying business is outperforming expectations and its balance sheet is “extremely healthy.” Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, EchoStar operates 20-plus geosynchronous satellites that orbit 26,236 miles above the earth to provide broadband, video and related services. 

I covered the satellite and space industries as a beat earlier in my career, interviewed Charlie Ergen several times and spoke to him conversationally when he was much more accessible than he is now as chairman of EchoStar and chairman and CEO of satellite TV operator DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH). Years ago, Ergen told me the only business in which he ever lost money was in providing broadband, and that he was determined to make money in it one day.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.