Yahoo Finance Iridium (IRDM) Launches Spare Satellites Using SpaceX Rocket
Iridium Communications IRDM achieved an important milestone in its efforts to enhance the reliability and redundancy of its satellite constellation. The company has successfully launched and deployed five spare satellites, bringing the total number of backup Iridium satellites in orbit to 14.
Iridium’s satellite constellation consists of several active satellites in low Earth orbit to provide global voice and data communications coverage. It uses an L-band frequency which is resilient to extreme weather conditions. The company further added that 80 of the 81 next-generation Iridium satellites have now been launched.
The launch took place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, added the company. The satellites contacted engineers at Iridium's Virginia-based Satellite Network Operations Center soon after deployment.
Iridium Communications Inc Price and Consensus
Iridium Communications Inc price-consensus-chart | Iridium Communications Inc Quote
In September, the company made an announcement to launch up to five of its remaining additional ground satellites. The satellites are built by Thales Alenia Space. These satellites have the Aireon-hosted payload designed to carry out real-time surveillance of aircrafts globally.
By adding these new satellites, Iridium aims to ensure uninterrupted critical services for its millions of users well into the next decade. As of Mar 31, the company had 2,051,000 billable subscribers, up 15% year over year. The year-over-year increase was backed by strength in the commercial Internet of Things (IoT).
Iridium is the only satellite communications company that offers dedicated commercial global voice and data communications. The company continues to invest heavily in research and development to launch advanced satellite communications services.
In January, the company announced that it had entered into an agreement with Qualcomm Technologies to allow satellite messaging and emergency services in smartphones powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Mobile Platforms. The integration will be possible through Qualcomm's Snapdragon Satellite solution, which is supported by Iridium's satellite constellation.
Prior to that, the company announced the launch of Iridium Messaging Transport to facilitate the integration of satellite connections into IoT solutions. The service is integrated with Iridium CloudConnect and Amazon Web Services and is intended to reduce development costs and speed up the time-to-market for new Iridium Connected IoT devices.
Iridium currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have gained 62.7% in the past year against the sub-industry’s decline of 20.2%.
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Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space are Dropbox DBX, Badger Meter BMI and Blackbaud BLKB. Dropbox and Blackbaud presently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), whereas Blackbaud holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Badger Meter’s 2023 earnings has increased 4.7% in the past 60 days to $2.69 per share.
Badger Meter’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters, the average being 5.3%. Shares of BMI have increased 83.6% in the past year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Blackbaud’s 2023 earnings has increased 7.3% in the past 60 days to $3.68 per share.
Blackbaud’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters, the average surprise being 10.4%. Shares of the company have increased 17% in the past year.
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