Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 258,548 Shares of Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,479,969 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 258,548 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 9.05% of Iridium Communications worth $165,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 184.7% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,506 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 977 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,053 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 147.0% during the third quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 3,485 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 2,074 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the second quarter valued at $70,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications in the third quarter valued at about $171,000. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IRDM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Iridium Communications from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. BWS Financial reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.40.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ IRDM opened at $24.77 on Tuesday. Iridium Communications Inc has a fifty-two week low of $15.65 and a fifty-two week high of $33.34. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.80, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 2.48. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.44.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 13.12% and a return on equity of 24.01%. The firm had revenue of $212.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.14 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Iridium Communications’s revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Iridium Communications Inc will post 0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.60%.

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.