Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Short Interest Update

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,900,000 shares, an increase of 8.6% from the March 31st total of 3,590,000 shares. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Iridium Communications

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IRDM. Northwest Financial Advisors bought a new stake in Iridium Communications in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 83.2% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,006 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 4th quarter worth approximately $60,000. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 691.4% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,939 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 1,694 shares in the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on IRDM shares. TheStreet raised Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. William Blair downgraded Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. BWS Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Raymond James dropped their price target on Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Iridium Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Three investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.75.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IRDM opened at $31.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 146.62 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $27.37 and its 200-day moving average is $34.13. Iridium Communications has a 1-year low of $24.14 and a 1-year high of $65.69.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The technology company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 2.76% and a net margin of 3.20%. The business had revenue of $203.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.84 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Iridium Communications will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is presently 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.