Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM)
🔔 Watch stock
symbol.quality_heading
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
The operating business is robust: $871.7 million of revenue in fiscal 2025 (up 5 percent), $114.4 million of net income, and with $634.0 million of recurring service revenue 73 percent of sales come from standing contracts; commercial IoT keeps growing with 1.998 million subscribers. Nothing supports red: equity is positive at $462.6 million, there is no going-concern doubt, and the term loan does not mature until September 2030. Three things rule out green. First, leverage: a $1.77 billion term loan and net debt at roughly 3.8 times operating earnings before depreciation. Second, the hollowed-out balance sheet: years of buybacks — $186.5 million in 2025 alone, paused since October 2025 — shrank equity from $1,128.6 million in 2022 to $462.6 million, with an accumulated deficit of $418.6 million in retained earnings. Third, two open structural questions: the EMSS government contract worth $110.5 million a year expires in September 2026 and is being renegotiated, and SpaceX acquired spectrum in 2025 for a competing satellite-to-handset service.
symbol.quality_note
Iridium runs a global network of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites and earns three out of every four dollars from recurring service revenue. In our scanner the stock lights up as a momentum rocket, up roughly 216 percent in six months — but that move has a name. At the end of June 2026 Iridium signed a takeover offer from Rocket Lab: $27.00 in cash plus stock. We read the annual and quarterly reports and took the uncomfortable parts with us: $1.77 billion of debt, a government contract worth 29 percent of revenue expiring in September 2026, and SpaceX as a new rival in orbit. A takeover offer is not a business model — and not investment advice.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 27, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at IRDM since then.
Later $1 a month per stock — signing up is free, and you'll be the first to know when it launches.
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 15 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 47.30 $ — 79% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralGeprüft am 10.07.2026 gegen den Geschäftsbericht (10-K) 2025 (eingereicht 12.02.2026) und die vier jüngsten Quartalsberichte (10-Q) sowie den 10-K 2024: In den ausgewerteten SEC-Filings von Iridium Communications findet sich kein wesentlicher KI-Bezug im Sinne des Kriterienkatalogs. Künstliche Intelligenz taucht ausschließlich als generischer Anpassungs-/Wettbewerbsrisikofaktor im Item 1A des 10-K 2025 auf — Iridiums Geschäft könne beeinträchtigt werden, falls das Unternehmen KI nicht so gut in Prozesse, Produkte und Dienste integriere wie Wettbewerber. Das ist eine Boilerplate-Anpassungsfloskel ohne konkreten Bezug zum eigenen Geschäftsmodell und begründet nach der Vorrang-Regel kein 'bedroht'. Es gibt weder eine KI-Umsatzquelle (kein KI-Produkt in Item 1 Business/MD&A) noch einen belegten operativen KI-Einsatz ('machine learning' wird nicht genannt). Der strukturelle Wettbewerbsdruck durch SpaceX/Starlink betrifft Satelliten-Direkt-zum-Gerät-Dienste (D2D), nicht KI. Damit bleibt es beim dokumentierten Negativ-Befund: neutral.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-04-23 · 10-Q 2025-10-23 · 10-Q 2025-07-24 · 10-Q 2025-04-22 · 10-K 2026-02-12 · 10-K 2025-02-13
Rated on July 10, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 11.2% below the current price.
- Consensus
- Strong Sell
- Analyst Ratings
- 9
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 1.08 | 1.08 – 1.08 | 939 | 1.5% | 1 |
| 12/31/2027 | 1.97 | 1.97 – 1.97 | 1,016 | 82.4% | 1 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- 0.41 $
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 0.31 | 1.70 | 213 | 9.40 | 17.10 | 105 | 81 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.27 | 73.40 | 215 | 5.40 | 14.20 | 61 | 37 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.20 | -23.90 | 217 | 7.90 | 10.10 | 130 | 109 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.35 | 68.50 | 227 | 6.70 | 16.40 | 101 | 79 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.24 | -24.70 | 213 | 0.00 | 11.70 | 109 | 75 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.20 | -26.30 | 219 | 1.90 | 9.90 | 72 | 42 |
| 2026: Q2 | 0.09 | -55.00 | 225 | 3.80 | 4.30 | 114 | 92 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 434 | 176 | 111 | 1.16 | 225 | 1,344 | 3,500 |
| 2017 | 448 | 101 | 234 | 2.38 | 260 | 1,596 | 3,782 |
| 2018 | 523 | 42 | -13 | -0.12 | 264 | 1,602 | 4,014 |
| 2019 | 560 | 10 | -162 | -1.29 | 198 | 1,459 | 3,624 |
| 2020 | 583 | 35 | -56 | -0.42 | 250 | 1,419 | 3,361 |
| 2021 | 615 | 46 | -9 | -0.07 | 303 | 1,288 | 3,181 |
| 2022 | 721 | 77 | 9 | 0.07 | 345 | 1,129 | 2,954 |
| 2023 | 791 | 119 | 15 | 0.12 | 315 | 888 | 2,662 |
| 2024 | 831 | 203 | 113 | 0.94 | 376 | 577 | 2,671 |
| 2025 | 872 | 236 | 114 | 1.06 | 400 | 463 | 2,531 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
A fundamentally sound network business: 66 low-earth-orbit satellites with global coverage, 73 percent recurring service revenue ($634.0 million), a growing IoT business (1.998 million subscribers, revenue up 9 percent), a 27 percent operating margin and roughly $300 million of free cash flow. Revenue that returns predictably three quarters of the time.
The dominant special situation: a merger agreement signed June 28, 2026 with Rocket Lab ($27.00 cash plus Rocket Lab stock, board unanimous, termination fee $223.6 million, outside date in 2027). The roughly 216 percent gain is essentially that premium. Opportunity and risk at once: the deal sets a price anchor but can fail, and part of the price is a more speculative Rocket Lab share.
Term loan $1.77 billion (due September 2030), net debt roughly 3.8 times EBITDA. Years of buybacks shrank equity from $1,128.6 million (2022) to $462.6 million (2025), with an accumulated deficit of $418.6 million in retained earnings. Equity is still positive (no insolvency signal) but thin — buybacks paused since October 2025.
Two structural findings: the U.S. government accounts for 29 percent of revenue, and the EMSS contract ($110.5 million a year) expires in September 2026 with terms still open. At the same time SpaceX and Starlink are pushing satellite-to-handset (D2D) services into parts of the market, with far greater capital and reach — even though Iridium counters with NTN Direct.
Not cheap on fundamentals: EV/EBITDA around 16, price-to-earnings around 44, free cash flow yield roughly 5.5 percent, dividend about 1.2 percent (mid-2026). But the metrics are secondary while the offer stands: the price orients on $27.00 in cash plus the value of the Rocket Lab shares. Entering is a deal bet, not a classic valuation bet.
Operationally Iridium is a fundamentally sound satellite business: 66 low-earth-orbit satellites, 73 percent recurring service revenue, a growing IoT business and roughly $300 million of free cash flow. But the stock is currently not a fundamentals case, it is a takeover case: on June 28, 2026 Iridium signed an offer from Rocket Lab ($27.00 cash plus stock) — the roughly 216 percent rally is essentially that premium. Underneath sit $1.77 billion of debt, equity shrunk by buybacks to $462.6 million (still positive), a government contract covering 29 percent of revenue heading into renegotiation, and SpaceX and Starlink as a new rival. A takeover offer is not a business model. Not investment advice.
- Correction carried over in this re-edition: the German chart plotted shareholders' equity of $1,124.6 million against the 2023 label. The SEC XBRL series gives $1,128.6 million for 2022 and $888.1 million for 2023 — the German figure matched neither year. Both language versions now use the XBRL series for 2022 to 2025, so every bar traces back to a filed annual report.
- Price and valuation figures are dated to mid-2026 (market capitalisation ~$5.4bn, EV ~$7.0bn, EV/EBITDA ~16, P/E ~44); annual figures refer to fiscal 2025 and quarterly figures to Q1 2026. Analyses are evergreen and daily prices are not a buying argument. The roughly 216 percent gain over six months is essentially the takeover premium, not operating momentum.
- Special-situation screening: the pending Rocket Lab takeover (merger agreement June 28, 2026, 8-K dated June 29, 2026) is the dominant special situation; in addition an 8-K dated July 7, 2026 covers the increased Aireon stake and related debt. Otherwise no material litigation, no material weakness and no current activist — only passive SC 13G holders (BlackRock 12.4 percent, Baralonco 9.9 percent).
- AI classification: neutral (documented negative finding). Iridium mentions artificial intelligence only defensively, as a generic competitive and adaptation risk in Item 1A — the company must integrate AI into processes and products as well as competitors do — with no concrete AI revenue source and no documented operational AI use. That is enough for neither "sells" nor "uses" nor "threatened".
About the Company
Iridium Communications Inc. bietet mobile Sprach- und Datenkommunikationsdienste und -produkte für Unternehmen, die US-Regierung und ausländische Regierungen, Nichtregierungsorganisationen und Verbraucher in den USA, Kanada und international an.
| CEO Insider Trades (12 Mo.) | buying own stock |
|---|---|
| Employees | 975 |
| Headquarters | McLean, VA |
| Address | 1676 International Drive, 22102 McLean, United States |
| Phone | 703-287-7400 |
| Website | iridium.com |
| IPO Date | 20. Mar 2008 |
| ISIN | US46269C1027 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew J. Desch | CEO & Director | 1958 |
| Vincent J. O'Neill | Chief Financial Officer | 1966 |
| Suzanne E. McBride | COO & Director | 1969 |
| Kathleen A. Morgan | Chief Legal Officer & Company Secretary | 1968 |
| Scott T. Scheimreif | Executive Vice President of Government Programs | 1969 |
| Gregory D. Pelton | Chief Technical Officer | – |
| Kenneth B. Levy | Vice President of Investor Relations | – |
| Timothy J. Last | Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing | 1968 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Insider Transactions
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10. Jul 2026 | Thoma Donald Lee | EVP, Aireon | Other | 41,949 | 0.00 | – |
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
View all insider transactions →Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.