Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Short Interest Up 12.3% in August

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,100,000 shares, an increase of 12.3% from the August 15th total of 4,540,000 shares. Approximately 4.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on IRDM shares. BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on Iridium Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Iridium Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.00.

Iridium Communications Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Iridium Communications stock opened at $28.34 on Wednesday. Iridium Communications has a fifty-two week low of $24.14 and a fifty-two week high of $51.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.92 and a 200 day moving average of $27.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 134.95 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 2.25.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $201.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $204.01 million. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 10.23% and a net margin of 11.08%. Iridium Communications’s revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.24) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Iridium Communications will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 266.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Iridium Communications by 7,684.6% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,012 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 999 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Iridium Communications in the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Iridium Communications in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Iridium Communications by 109.7% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,491 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Company Profile

Iridium Communications Inc provides mobile voice and data communications services and products to businesses, the United States and international governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers worldwide. The company offers postpaid mobile voice and data satellite communications; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications; push-to-talk; broadband data; and Internet of Things (IoT) services.