396,110 Shares in Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM Bought by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 396,110 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,727,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 107.5% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Iridium Communications by 392.8% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,508 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Iridium Communications during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC bought a new position in Iridium Communications during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its stake in Iridium Communications by 10,363.2% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,988 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,969 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IRDM has been the topic of several analyst reports. New Street Research upgraded Iridium Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Iridium Communications from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. William Blair lowered Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Iridium Communications in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Iridium Communications from $26.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Three equities research 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.com, Iridium Communications has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.67.

Iridium Communications Price Performance

Shares of Iridium Communications stock opened at $47.64 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $5.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.88. Iridium Communications Inc has a 1-year low of $15.65 and a 1-year high of $57.18. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $48.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.80.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 22.57% and a net margin of 10.55%.The firm had revenue of $225.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $220.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.18%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Fitzpatrick sold 15,046 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.20, for a total transaction of $740,263.20. Following the sale, the director owned 43,260 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,128,392. This represents a 25.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Suzanne E. Mcbride sold 85,454 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.28, for a total value of $4,296,627.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 282,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,179,814.76. This trade represents a 23.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 375,919 shares of company stock worth $18,878,997. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Iridium Communications

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.