Iridium Surges On Strong Subscriber Growth: 'We Plan To Continue Being Aggressive,' CEO Says

Zinger Key Points
  • Iridium (NASDAQ: IRDM) reports Q2 EPS of 27 cents, exceeding expectations, driven by a 13% rise in total billable subscribers.
  • Despite missing revenue forecasts, Iridium shows robust growth in commercial IoT, reaffirms 2024 outlook with strong shareholder returns.

Iridium Communications Inc IRDM shares are trading higher on Tuesday after the McLean, Virginia-based company reported second-quarter earnings of 27 cents per share, beating the street view of 18 cents.

Quarterly sales of 201.067 million missed the street view of $201.852 million.

Iridium ended the quarter with 2.41 million total billable subscribers, versus 2.14 million for the year-ago period. Subscriptions are up from 2.33 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

Total billable subscribers grew 13% year-over-year, led by growth in commercial IoT.

Net income primarily benefitted from a year-over-year decrease in depreciation expense associated with extending the estimated useful lives of the company’s satellites and the prior year’s write-off of the company’s remaining ground spare.

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Capital expenditures were $12.4 million for the second quarter, including $1.2 million in capitalized interest.

The company ended the second quarter with gross Term Loan debt of $1.6 billion, $50.0 million outstanding under the Revolving Facility, and a cash and cash equivalents balance of $63.5 million.

Iridium repurchased three percent of its shares and increased its quarterly dividend to common shareholders, according to CEO Matt Desch. “We plan to continue being aggressive with our shareholder-friendly activities in 2024, based on current market valuations,” he added.

Outlook: The company reiterated its full-year 2024 outlook. Total service revenue growth is projected between 4% and 6% for the full year 2024.

Total service revenue for 2023 was $584.5 million.

Full-year 2024 OEBITDA is expected between $460 million and $470 million. OEBITDA for 2023 was $463.1 million.

Price Action: IRDM shares are trading higher by 9.49% to $28.38 at last check Tuesday.

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