Raymond James Financial Downgrades Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) to Outperform

Key Points

• Iridium Communications has been downgraded from a "strong-buy" to an "outperform" rating by Raymond James Financial, with a price target of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 44.77% from its current stock price.
• Other brokerages have also adjusted their price targets for Iridium Communications, with Morgan Stanley lowering its target from $40.00 to $37.00 and BWS Financial decreasing its target from $25.00 to $16.00.
• The company's stock has recently dropped by 6.4%, and it reported earnings of $0.20 per share, missing analysts' expectations of $0.23, despite a year-over-year revenue increase of 7.9%.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities researchers at Raymond James Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $26.00 price target on the technology company's stock, down from their prior price target of $39.00. Raymond James Financial's price target would indicate a potential upside of 42.97% from the stock's previous close.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Iridium Communications from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 1st. BWS Financial downgraded Iridium Communications from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Iridium Communications from $38.00 to $31.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Iridium Communications presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $30.67.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IRDM traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $18.19. The company's stock had a trading volume of 939,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,598,803. Iridium Communications has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $35.85. The company has a market capitalization of $1.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.82, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $25.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.44.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $216.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.73 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 20.28% and a net margin of 13.20%.Iridium Communications's quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Iridium Communications will post 0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications in the first quarter valued at $247,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 82.2% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,447,889 shares of the technology company's stock worth $39,556,000 after purchasing an additional 653,201 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 25.0% during the first quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 879,385 shares of the technology company's stock worth $24,025,000 after purchasing an additional 175,992 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,961 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Iridium Communications by 85.8% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 26,627 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $727,000 after purchasing an additional 12,297 shares during the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Iridium Communications

Iridium Communications Inc provides mobile voice and data communications services and products to businesses, the United States and international governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers worldwide. The company offers postpaid mobile voice and data satellite communications; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications; push-to-talk; broadband data; and Internet of Things (IoT) services.