- Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) was upgraded by BWS Financial to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $60, up from $37.
- Analyst Hamed Khorsand noted that the stock is down 20% from January, but the investment story has improved as the company continues to grow its subscriber base at a faster pace than he had been expecting.
- Yesterday the company reported Q3 results beating analysts estimates of GAAP EPS and revenue.The company ended Q3 with 1.69M total billable subscribers, which compares to ~1.43M for the year-ago period and is up from ~1.62M for Q2 2021. Total billable subscribers grew 18% Y/Y, driven by growth in commercial IoT customers.
- The chart below shows YTD total return performance of IRDM and its peers:Cogent Communications Holdings, Liberty Latin America; and Globalstar:
- The analyst added that its better than expected growth should allow the company to delever its balance sheet "aggressively," which help drive a higher stock price.
- The company also raised its full year guidance:
- Iridium CEO Matt Desch said, "In light of strong underlying demand and continued subscriber momentum, Iridium is raising its full-year guidance for 2021. We now expect total service revenue growth of between 5% and 6% and operational EBITDA of approximately $375 million this year."
