Groupe la Francaise Purchases Shares of 20,438 Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM

Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 20,438 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $567,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 33.0% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 48,325 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,320,000 after purchasing an additional 11,985 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in Iridium Communications by 1,243.0% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 40,479 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 37,465 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 16.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 232,231 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,345,000 after buying an additional 33,191 shares in the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in shares of Iridium Communications in the first quarter valued at $218,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 539,566 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $14,741,000 after acquiring an additional 75,060 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

Shares of IRDM stock opened at $47.34 on Friday. Iridium Communications Inc has a 1-year low of $15.65 and a 1-year high of $57.18. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70. The company has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.84.

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

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Friday, July 10th. William Blair downgraded Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. BWS Financial reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Monday, April 27th. New Street Research raised Iridium Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Iridium Communications has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.67.

Iridium Communications Company 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.