Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) saw a large decline in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totaling 2,826,191 shares, a decline of 35.3% from the June 30th total of 4,367,799 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,225,094 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.3 days. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IRDM has been the topic of several research reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $26.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Friday, April 24th. New Street Research upgraded Iridium Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, William Blair downgraded Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Iridium Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.67.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IRDM traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $47.43. 888,976 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,431,379. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.76. Iridium Communications has a 52 week low of $15.65 and a 52 week high of $57.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.87.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $225.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $220.32 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 10.55%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.18%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,157,227 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $176,533,000 after purchasing an additional 677,258 shares in the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc grew its position in Iridium Communications by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 5,251,133 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $91,265,000 after purchasing an additional 61,430 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Iridium Communications by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,761,749 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $82,759,000 after buying an additional 725,856 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Iridium Communications by 265.8% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,039,731 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $53,074,000 after buying an additional 2,208,857 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Iridium Communications by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,323,170 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,377,000 after buying an additional 408,903 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.