Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) Given Consensus Rating of "Hold" by Analysts

Key Points

• Iridium Communications has a consensus analyst rating of “Hold,” with seven analysts covering the stock: one sell, four hold, and two buy ratings. The average 12-month price target is $34.00.
• The company recently reported quarterly earnings of $0.20 per share, missing Wall Street’s estimate of $0.27, while revenue came in slightly above expectations at $219.06 million.
• Iridium also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, payable on June 30, which works out to an annualized yield of about 1.3%.

Shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.00.

IRDM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Iridium Communications from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective 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. Finally, BWS Financial reissued a "sell" rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday, April 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Iridium Communications

In other news, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 3,790 shares of the business'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 transaction of $117,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,764 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,480,684. The trade was a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,157,227 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $176,533,000 after buying an additional 677,258 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 21.7% during the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 6,490,108 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $113,317,000 after buying an additional 1,156,580 shares during the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 5,251,133 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $91,265,000 after buying an additional 61,430 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,761,749 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $82,759,000 after buying an additional 725,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 265.8% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,039,731 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $53,074,000 after buying an additional 2,208,857 shares during the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of IRDM opened at $47.47 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a PE ratio of 47.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.74, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.85. Iridium Communications has a fifty-two week low of $15.65 and a fifty-two week high of $53.83. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $40.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.65.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $219.06 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $218.39 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 22.76% and a net margin of 12.05%.Iridium Communications's revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Iridium Communications will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Iridium Communications's payout ratio is presently 60.61%.

About Iridium Communications

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.