Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) Trading Up 10.7% – What’s Next?

Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM)’s stock price traded up 10.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $31.54 and last traded at $31.5830. 682,387 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 2,193,515 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.52.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on IRDM. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. BWS Financial reissued a “sell” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Iridium Communications from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.40.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 2.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.80. The company has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.06.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $212.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.14 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. Iridium Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Iridium Communications Inc will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.60%.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in IRDM. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 63.7% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 44,358 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $772,000 after acquiring an additional 17,267 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 994,205 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,279,000 after acquiring an additional 106,856 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in Iridium Communications in the 4th quarter worth approximately $193,000. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury boosted its position in Iridium Communications by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 48,695 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $846,000 after purchasing an additional 15,752 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in Iridium Communications by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,350 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

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.