Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $45.00.

A number of research firms recently commented on IRDM. BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays increased their target price on Iridium Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Iridium Communications

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IRDM. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Iridium Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $55,079,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,743,482 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $71,762,000 after purchasing an additional 539,909 shares during the last quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 1,743,482 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $71,762,000 after purchasing an additional 539,909 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,090,326 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $316,283,000 after purchasing an additional 336,989 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Iridium Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $7,437,000. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

IRDM stock opened at $28.81 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $27.30 and its 200-day moving average is $29.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 2.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 136.48 and a beta of 0.65. Iridium Communications has a twelve month low of $24.14 and a twelve month high of $51.80.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $201.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $204.01 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 10.23% and a net margin of 11.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.24) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 0.77 EPS for the current year.

Iridium Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. This is an increase from Iridium Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. 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.