Short Interest in Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) Declines By 54.0%

Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 4,367,799 shares, a drop of 54.0% from the June 15th total of 9,488,045 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,207,739 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days. Approximately 4.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Iridium Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tema ETFs LLC purchased a new position in Iridium Communications during the second quarter valued at $16,961,000. Brave Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications in the second quarter worth about $247,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 19.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,023 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 789.1% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 7,042 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $195,000 after buying an additional 6,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Iridium Communications by 11,143.3% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 45,198 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,254,000 after buying an additional 44,796 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Iridium Communications stock traded down $2.08 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $46.59. The stock had a trading volume of 1,289,788 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,502,597. Iridium Communications has a one year low of $15.65 and a one year high of $57.18. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $47.36 and its 200 day moving average is $33.55.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 EPS 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%. Iridium Communications’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. 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 (DPR) is 60.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on IRDM. Barclays lifted 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. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Iridium Communications from $26.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, William Blair downgraded Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.67.

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.