Jupiter Topco LLC Takes Position in Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM

Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 325,387 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,847,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its position in Iridium Communications by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 15,199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $197,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 19.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,023 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 5,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 107.5% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IRDM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Iridium Communications from $26.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. New Street Research raised Iridium Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. William Blair cut Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Iridium Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.67.

Iridium Communications Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of IRDM opened at $46.60 on Friday. Iridium Communications Inc has a 12-month low of $15.65 and a 12-month high of $57.18. 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 market capitalization of $4.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $48.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.85.

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

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.18%.

Insider Transactions at Iridium Communications

In other news, Director Thomas Fitzpatrick sold 209,233 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.22, for a total value of $10,507,681.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 58,306 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,928,127.32. This represents a 78.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 13,473 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.51, for a total transaction of $680,521.23. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 35,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,804,772.81. The trade was a 27.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 375,919 shares of company stock valued at $18,878,997 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.70% 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.