Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) Shares Up 6.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM)’s stock price traded up 6.2% during mid-day trading on Friday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $42.00 to $44.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Iridium Communications traded as high as $31.63 and last traded at $31.53. 677,103 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 1,139,223 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.69.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday, April 22nd. TheStreet raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. William Blair cut shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Iridium Communications

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in Iridium Communications by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 14,583,317 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $663,395,000 after acquiring an additional 58,818 shares during the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc increased its position in Iridium Communications by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 2,656,227 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $109,330,000 after purchasing an additional 214,508 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Iridium Communications by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,266,706 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $93,298,000 after purchasing an additional 97,167 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Iridium Communications by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,173,964 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $89,480,000 after purchasing an additional 249,185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 19.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,089,600 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,664,000 after buying an additional 346,118 shares in the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $27.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.38 and a beta of 0.85.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $203.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.84 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 2.76% and a net margin of 3.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.08 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Iridium Communications Inc. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is presently 247.62%.

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.