Oppenheimer Issues Positive Forecast for Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) Stock Price

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) had its price objective raised by Oppenheimer from $48.00 to $60.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on IRDM. New Street Research initiated coverage on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Thursday, May 14th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Iridium Communications from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. BWS Financial reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $16.00 target price on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday, April 27th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.00.

Iridium Communications Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of IRDM stock opened at $49.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.50, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.89. Iridium Communications has a 1-year low of $15.65 and a 1-year high of $53.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.74, a current ratio of 2.85 and a quick ratio of 2.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.96.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $219.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.39 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 22.76% and a net margin of 12.05%.The company’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is 60.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Iridium Communications news, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 3,790 shares of Iridium Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total transaction of $117,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,480,684. The trade was a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in Iridium Communications by 3.1% in the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 15,199 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Iridium Communications by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $197,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in Iridium Communications by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 5,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 572 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in Iridium Communications by 107.5% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in Iridium Communications by 5.3% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 14,971 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 753 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

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.