Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Iridium Communications Call Options (NASDAQ:IRDM)

Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 4,875 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 144% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,999 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Matthew J. Desch bought 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $17.33 per share, with a total value of $346,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,127,019 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,531,239.27. The trade was a 1.81% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert H. Niehaus purchased 30,000 shares of Iridium Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.49 per share, with a total value of $524,700.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 297,363 shares in the company, valued at $5,200,878.87. This represents a 11.22% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,967 shares of company stock worth $557,406. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Synergy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Iridium Communications by 100.0% in the third quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 1,324,366 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $23,123,000 after purchasing an additional 662,183 shares during the period. Brookwood Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,165,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,693,000. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,074,000. Finally, Graphene Investments SAS bought a new stake in Iridium Communications in the second quarter valued at about $3,479,000. 84.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on IRDM shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $24.00 price target (down from $37.00) on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $31.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Iridium Communications from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.00.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IRDM opened at $21.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50-day moving average of $17.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.64. Iridium Communications has a fifty-two week low of $15.65 and a fifty-two week high of $34.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.02, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.93.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $226.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $222.13 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 24.93% and a net margin of 14.44%.The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.21 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Iridium Communications will post 0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.10%.

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.