BWS Financial Reiterates Sell Rating for Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM)

Key Points

• BWS Financial57.8% downside from the stock's then-current price.
• Analysts are mixed—Barclays and others have raised targets and ratings while Weiss and Morgan Stanley moved to more neutral stances, leaving a MarketBeat consensus of "Hold" with an average target of $27.60 (4 Buy, 2 Hold, 1 Sell).
• Shares traded near $38 despite a modest quarterly beat (EPS $0.24 vs. $0.23) and flat revenue; the company has high leverage (debt/equity ~3.80) and roughly 84% institutional ownership.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "sell" rating reaffirmed by research analysts at BWS Financial in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $16.00 price objective on the technology company's stock. BWS Financial's price objective would indicate a potential downside of 57.82% from the company's current price.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Iridium Communications from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Iridium Communications from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Iridium Communications presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $27.60.

Iridium Communications Trading Up 5.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:IRDM traded up $1.81 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.93. The stock had a trading volume of 896,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,221,333. Iridium Communications has a 12-month low of $15.65 and a 12-month high of $38.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.80, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 2.48. The company has a market cap of $4.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.48. The company's 50 day moving average is $25.97 and its 200-day moving average is $20.90.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 13.12% and a return on equity of 24.01%. The company had revenue of $212.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. The company's revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Iridium Communications will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Iridium Communications

In other news, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 3,790 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total value of $117,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 47,764 shares in the company, valued at $1,480,684. This represents a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 107.5% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 741 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 184.7% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,506 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 977 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 392.8% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,508 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Iridium Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Iridium Communications in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company's stock.

Iridium Communications Company Profile

Iridium Communications Inc operates a global satellite communications network that delivers voice and data services across land, sea and air. The company's unique architecture relies on a constellation of 66 low-Earth orbit satellites, enabling real-time connectivity in regions beyond the reach of terrestrial wireless networks. Iridium's core offerings include satellite voice and messaging services, broadband data terminals, push-to-talk (PTT) interoperability and machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Iridium serves a diverse range of markets, including maritime shipping, aviation, government and defense, energy, and enterprise.

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