Virtu Financial LLC Sells 19,070 Shares of Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM

Virtu Financial LLC lowered its stake in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) by 26.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,549 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 19,070 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC owned 0.05% of Iridium Communications worth $931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of IRDM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,157,227 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $176,533,000 after purchasing an additional 677,258 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in Iridium Communications by 21.7% in the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 6,490,108 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $113,317,000 after buying an additional 1,156,580 shares during the last quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Silver Heights Capital Management Inc now owns 5,251,133 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $91,265,000 after buying an additional 61,430 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Iridium Communications by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,761,749 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $82,759,000 after buying an additional 725,856 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 265.8% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,039,731 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $53,074,000 after buying an additional 2,208,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Iridium Communications news, CAO Timothy Kapalka sold 3,790 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.00, for a total value of $117,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 47,764 shares in the company, valued at $1,480,684. This represents a 7.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IRDM opened at $44.57 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $43.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.74, a current ratio of 2.85 and a quick ratio of 2.21. Iridium Communications Inc has a one year low of $15.65 and a one year high of $53.83. The company has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.02, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.88.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The technology company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.07). Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 22.76% and a net margin of 12.05%.The firm had revenue of $219.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Iridium Communications Inc will post 1.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is presently 60.61%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Iridium Communications from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. BWS Financial restated a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $25.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Iridium Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

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.