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Iridium Communications

IRDM on Nasdaq. Iridium sells satellite voice and data services to businesses, governments, and consumers. Market value $5.1bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Media & telecom stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
5.5%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.55 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
32.7×full

You pay 32.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
2.8%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 3 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 57 of 100. Price score: 40 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$49.04 a share, 213% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $15.65 to $57.18.

Dividend: 1.2% a year

Paid every year for 3 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
0.3
0.2
0.3
0.3
0.3
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$615m$721m$791m$831m$872m
Operating margin
7.5%10.6%10.3%24.1%27.1%
Debt to equity
1.231.321.673.113.81
Shares outstanding
0.13bn0.12bn0.11bn0.10bn0.11bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive4 of 4 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 7 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)No
  • Debt3.81× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 8.4% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 16% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $225 million last quarter, up 4% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $10 million, down 56% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 24 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 25 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $288 million, down from $326 million.
  • About the same number of shares as a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$213m
December 2024$213m
March 2025$215m
June 2025$217m
September 2025$227m
December 2025$213m
March 2026$219m
June 2026$225m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$24m
December 2024$36m
March 2025$30m
June 2025$22m
September 2025$37m
December 2025$25m
March 2026$22m
June 2026$10m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
12 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
21 October 2026

Who owns it

3 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 4 last quarter. 481 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

6 investors own more than 5%.

  • BlackRock, Inc.
    Passive investor
    12.5%+2.9 pts
    Since 31 December 2025
  • Fahd bin Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman
    Passive investor
    9.6%
    Since 24 June 2025
  • Baralonco Limited
    Passive investor
    at least 9.4%−0.1 pts
    (filed with 2 related holders)
    Since 31 July 2026
  • at least 6.6%
    (filed with 1 related holder)
    Since 30 June 2026
  • 5.8%
    Since 31 March 2026
  • at least 3.9%−2.2 pts
    (filed with 1 related holder)
    Since 30 November 2025
  • Sold down below 5%
    Since 30 June 2026
  • Baron Capital Group, Inc.
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 30 September 2025
  • The Vanguard Group
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 13 March 2026

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 2 insiders bought $871,300 of shares on the open market. 6 sold $20m, $184,909 of it under preset trading plans.

  • Last Timothy James
    EVP, Sales & Marketing
    Sold
    Date
    15 September 2026
    Shares
    5,769
    Price
    $46.35
    Value
    $267,393
  • Last Timothy James
    EVP, Sales & Marketing
    Sold
    Date
    3 September 2026
    Shares
    2,013
    Price
    $47.36
    Value
    $95,336
  • FITZPATRICK THOMAS
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    18 August 2026
    Shares
    15,046
    Price
    $49.20
    Value
    $740,263
  • FITZPATRICK THOMAS
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    209,233
    Price
    $50.22
    Value
    $11m
  • Last Timothy James
    EVP, Sales & Marketing
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    19,521
    Price
    $50.34
    Value
    $982,767
  • Kapalka Timothy
    CAO Iridium Satellite LLC
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    13,473
    Price
    $50.51
    Value
    $680,521
  • McBride Suzanne E.
    Chief Operations Officer, Director
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    85,454
    Price
    $50.28
    Value
    $4m
  • Morgan Kathleen A.
    Chief Legal Officer
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    33,192
    Price
    $50.35
    Value
    $2m
  • Olson Eric T
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    8,000
    Price
    $50.61
    Value
    $404,880
  • Kapalka Timothy
    CAO Iridium Satellite LLC
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    6 April 2026
    Shares
    2,043
    Price
    $33.00
    Value
    $67,419

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the serious warning signs we check for were found. 1 thing worth knowing.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 12 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 22 Jul 2026 and 12 later 8-Ks.

  • One big customer

    Worth knowing

    One customer brings in a big share of sales: 29% last year. Losing that customer would hurt.

    “The U.S. government, directly and indirectly, has been and continues to be our largest single customer, generating $257.0 million in revenue, representing 29% of our total revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2025.”

    From the 10-K filed 12 February 2026, Item 1. Business. Read it in the filing

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • It carries a lot of debt: 3.8× its equity.
  • It isn't cheap on profits: 32.7× operating profit.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.