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

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) shares rose 6.2% 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. Approximately 677,103 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 1,139,223 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.69.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on IRDM. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. William Blair lowered shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.75.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bamco Inc. NY grew its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 0.4% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 14,583,317 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $663,395,000 after purchasing an additional 58,818 shares during the period. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Iridium Communications by 8.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 214,508 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position 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 worth $93,298,000 after acquiring an additional 97,167 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted 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 worth $89,480,000 after acquiring an additional 249,185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Iridium Communications by 19.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,089,600 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,664,000 after acquiring an additional 346,118 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Stock Up 5.7 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.38 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s 50-day moving average is $27.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.41.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $203.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.84 million. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 2.76%. Iridium Communications’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.08 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Iridium Communications Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

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

Iridium Communications Company Profile

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.