Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Short Interest Down 7.5% in December

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,990,000 shares, a drop of 7.5% from the December 15th total of 8,640,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,030,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.8 days. Approximately 8.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Iridium Communications

In other Iridium Communications news, Director Robert H. Niehaus sold 38,355 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.39, for a total value of $1,127,253.45. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 254,824 shares in the company, valued at $7,489,277.36. This trade represents a 13.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Suzanne E. Mcbride sold 4,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $130,301.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 182,797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,388,855.56. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,332 shares of company stock worth $1,615,846 over the last quarter. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Iridium Communications

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,269,883 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $130,018,000 after purchasing an additional 36,851 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,508,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $76,385,000 after purchasing an additional 33,074 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,609,649 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,014,000 after purchasing an additional 11,117 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 26.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 942,380 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,695,000 after purchasing an additional 198,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 856,901 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,093,000 after purchasing an additional 137,924 shares during the last quarter. 84.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

IRDM stock traded up $0.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $28.16. The stock had a trading volume of 1,060,738 shares, compared to its average volume of 712,121. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68. Iridium Communications has a 52 week low of $24.14 and a 52 week high of $38.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.96 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.52.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The technology company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 14.09% and a return on equity of 14.34%. The firm had revenue of $212.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $205.68 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Iridium Communications currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

About Iridium Communications

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.