Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM Shares Acquired by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) by 26.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 410,893 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 87,164 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Iridium Communications were worth $7,141,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Iridium Communications by 22.7% in the third quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 5,189,703 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $90,612,000 after purchasing an additional 961,440 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Iridium Communications by 323.8% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 310,797 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,427,000 after purchasing an additional 237,456 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,157,227 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $176,533,000 after acquiring an additional 677,258 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 8.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 612,610 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,696,000 after acquiring an additional 50,239 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 130.2% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 396,642 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,044,000 after purchasing an additional 224,322 shares during the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on IRDM shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Iridium Communications from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. BWS Financial reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday, April 27th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.00.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

IRDM opened at $47.36 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $40.50 and its 200-day moving average is $27.36. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a PE ratio of 47.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.74. Iridium Communications Inc has a twelve month low of $15.65 and a twelve month high of $53.83.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $219.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.39 million. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 22.76%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Iridium Communications Inc will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is 60.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Iridium Communications

In other news, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 2,043 shares of Iridium Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.00, for a total transaction of $67,419.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 45,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,508,793. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Profile

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.