56,663 Shares in Iridium Communications Inc $IRDM Purchased by New Century Financial Group LLC

New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ:IRDM) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 56,663 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,000. Iridium Communications comprises about 1.8% of New Century Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. New Century Financial Group LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Iridium Communications at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in IRDM. Synergy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 100.0% in the third quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 1,324,366 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,123,000 after purchasing an additional 662,183 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Iridium Communications by 74.5% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,744,095 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,452,000 after buying an additional 744,836 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in shares of Iridium Communications in the 3rd quarter worth $1,162,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Iridium Communications by 8,072.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 205,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,589,000 after acquiring an additional 203,019 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Iridium Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,074,000. 84.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IRDM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Iridium Communications from $31.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Iridium Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $39.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. BWS Financial reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Iridium Communications in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Iridium Communications from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.67.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

Shares of IRDM stock opened at $18.48 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.02, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.67. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $17.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.49. Iridium Communications Inc has a one year low of $15.65 and a one year high of $34.45.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.09. Iridium Communications had a return on equity of 24.93% and a net margin of 14.44%.The company had revenue of $226.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $222.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Iridium Communications Inc will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Iridium Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. Iridium Communications’s payout ratio is currently 53.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Iridium Communications news, Director Robert H. Niehaus bought 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $17.49 per share, with a total value of $524,700.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 297,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,200,878.87. This represents a 11.22% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Matthew J. Desch bought 20,000 shares of Iridium Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $17.33 per share, for a total transaction of $346,600.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 1,127,019 shares in the company, valued at $19,531,239.27. This represents a 1.81% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 30,967 shares of company stock worth $557,406 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

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.