Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Short Interest Update

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,930,000 shares, a decline of 6.3% from the May 31st total of 5,260,000 shares. Currently, 4.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on IRDM shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Iridium Communications presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 54,770 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,491,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 20.6% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 3,216 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 30,459 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 35,600 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $931,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Iridium Communications stock traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $26.67. The stock had a trading volume of 145,121 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,096,626. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.95 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $28.88 and its 200 day moving average is $31.05. Iridium Communications has a one year low of $24.14 and a one year high of $61.84.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last issued its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.84 million. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 2.76%. Iridium Communications’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. This is an increase from Iridium Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 266.67%.

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.