Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) Trading 6.2% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

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

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. William Blair cut shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. BWS Financial reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Iridium Communications

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bamco Inc. NY increased its position in Iridium Communications by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 14,583,317 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $663,395,000 after purchasing an additional 58,818 shares in the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Iridium Communications by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 2,656,227 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $109,330,000 after purchasing an additional 214,508 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Iridium Communications by 4.5% in 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 during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 249,185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 19.9% in 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 buying an additional 346,118 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Trading Up 6.4 %

The firm has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 150.14 and a beta of 0.85. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $27.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.53.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 2.76%. The company had revenue of $203.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.84 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.08 earnings per share. Iridium Communications’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Iridium Communications Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is currently 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.