Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.14 Per Share

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 23rd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share by the technology company on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This is an increase from Iridium Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

Iridium Communications has a dividend payout ratio of 60.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Iridium Communications to earn $0.95 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 58.9%.

Iridium Communications Stock Performance

Iridium Communications stock traded up $0.66 on Friday, reaching $29.98. 617,484 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 897,106. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a PE ratio of 142.76 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. Iridium Communications has a twelve month low of $24.14 and a twelve month high of $65.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $28.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.16.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The technology company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.01. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 2.76%. The firm had revenue of $203.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Iridium Communications will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on IRDM. BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Iridium Communications in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. William Blair cut shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. TheStreet raised shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Iridium Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.75.

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.