Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01, RTT News reports. The business 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 1.95% and a return on equity of 1.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.08 earnings per share.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ IRDM opened at $26.06 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.05. The company has a current ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65. The company has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 200.46 and a beta of 0.85. Iridium Communications has a twelve month low of $24.14 and a twelve month high of $68.34.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is 400.00%.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,175,726 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,406,000 after buying an additional 116,250 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,972,967 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $79,550,000 after buying an additional 111,529 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 22,569 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $910,000 after buying an additional 7,352 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,252 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,170,180 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $490,703,000 after buying an additional 33,082 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on IRDM. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. William Blair downgraded shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. BWS Financial downgraded shares of Iridium Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.80.

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.