Iridium Communications Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 (NASDAQ:IRDM)

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share by the technology company on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th.

Iridium Communications has a dividend payout ratio of 42.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Iridium Communications to earn $1.24 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.2%.

Iridium Communications Trading Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ:IRDM opened at $27.59 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.05. Iridium Communications has a 1-year low of $24.14 and a 1-year high of $35.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.70. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.30.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.16. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 13.58%. The business had revenue of $212.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.78 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Iridium Communications will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on IRDM. StockNews.com lowered Iridium Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Iridium Communications from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Iridium Communications in a research report on Friday, January 24th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company.

Insider Transactions at Iridium Communications

In other news, Director Thomas Fitzpatrick sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.53, for a total transaction of $356,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 241,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,876,585.90. This trade represents a 4.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.