Janus Henderson Group PLC Grows Holdings in Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM

Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) by 9.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 306,684 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 27,325 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Iridium Communications were worth $8,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 677,258 shares during the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 5,251,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,265,000 after buying an additional 61,430 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Iridium Communications by 130.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 396,642 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,044,000 after buying an additional 224,322 shares during the period. Maxi Investments CY Ltd purchased a new stake in Iridium Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,369,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 67.5% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 112,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,959,000 after acquiring an additional 45,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on IRDM. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Friday, April 24th. New Street Research raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. BWS Financial reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.67.

Iridium Communications Stock Down 2.5%

IRDM opened at $48.37 on Thursday. Iridium Communications Inc has a 1 year low of $15.65 and a 1 year high of $57.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $48.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 2.78. The company has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a PE ratio of 54.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.88.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The technology company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.19). Iridium Communications had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 22.57%. The business had revenue of $225.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $220.32 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Iridium Communications Inc will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is presently 68.18%.

Iridium Communications Company 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.