Iridium Communications IRDM is slated to release first-quarter 2025 earnings on April 22, before market open.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $212.9 million, indicating an increase of 4.4% from the year-ago level. The consensus estimate for earnings per share is 22 cents, unchanged in the past 30 days. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported earnings of 16 cents. 

IRDM’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, while meeting once, with the average surprise being 35.2%. In the past year, shares have lost 8.6% against the Zacks Satellite and Communication industry's growth of 24.2%. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.)

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Factors at Play

Healthy demand momentum across all its business segments – service, subscriber equipment and engineering and support service – coupled with rapid subscriber engagement, is likely to have boosted Iridium’s first-quarter performance. Our estimate for service, subscriber equipment and engineering and support service units is pegged at $157.8 million, $21.7 million and $32 million, respectively.

Rising commercial service revenues remain a key growth driver, backed by strong performance across voice, IoT data, broadband, hosted payloads and other data services. We estimate commercial service revenues to be $130.1 million, indicating 6.5% growth from the prior-year actual.

The company expects steady growth in voice subscribers and revenues, driven by its unmatched reliability and global network coverage, solidifying its foothold in the satellite industry. 

The hosted payload and other data service segment is also expected to have benefited from its cutting-edge Iridium Satellite Time and Location (STL) offering. The Iridium STL business is targeted to generate more than $100 million in service revenue per year by 2030. Hosted payload and other revenues will support 2025 growth as the Iridium Positioning, Navigation and Timing service (PNT) gains momentum. With civil and government uses, it is attracting GPS-dependent groups vulnerable to spoofing and jamming. 

Iridium Communications Inc Price and EPS Surprise

Iridium Communications Inc price-eps-surprise | Iridium Communications Inc Quote

Increased Engineering and Support revenues, fueled by heightened activity with the U.S. government, particularly the ongoing Space Development Agency contract, are encouraging. This partnership aligns Iridium with the U.S. government's long-term space goals.

Furthermore, Subscriber equipment sales rebounded strongly after pandemic-related supply chain challenges, showing solid recovery momentum. In the fourth quarter, segmental sales jumped 38% year over year to $21.6 million, driven by strong demand for Iridium services.

Iridium is shifting to become the top L-band partner to VSAT at sea, focusing on safety services. Despite short-term challenges, its long-term outlook remains strong. Increasing competition in the satellite communications space, a high debt load and emerging cyber risks pose headwinds.

Key Recent Development

On March 11, 2025, Iridium announced that Heimdall Power, a pioneering company in grid optimization, has integrated Iridium connectivity into its advanced grid monitoring solutions. By incorporating the Iridium Certus 9704 module, Heimdall Power's Neuron sensors can now transmit critical power line data, including temperature, ground clearance and electric fault localization, from any location directly to the Heimdall Cloud platform, ensuring real-time monitoring and optimization.

What Does Our Model Predict for IRDM?

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Iridium this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. However, this is not the case here.

Earnings ESP: Iridium has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Iridium currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks With the Favorable Combination

Here are three stocks you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right elements to post an earnings beat in this reporting cycle.

C.H. Robinson CHRW has an Earnings ESP of +1.37% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. CHRW is scheduled to report first-quarter 2025 earnings on April 30. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2025 revenues and earnings are pegged at $4.31 billion and $1.02 per share, respectively. CHRW’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, with the average surprise being 21.7%. 

Expeditors International of Washington EXPD has an Earnings ESP of +3.76% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. EXPD is scheduled to report first-quarter 2025 earnings on May 6.  

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2025 revenues and earnings are pegged at $2.43 billion and $1.30 per share, respectively. EXPD’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, while matching once, with the average surprise being 11.6%.

Church & Dwight Co. CHD has an Earnings ESP of +0.66% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. CHD is scheduled to report first-quarter 2025 earnings on May 1.  

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2025 revenues and earnings are pegged at $1.51 billion and 89 cents per share. CHD’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, while meeting once, with the average surprise being 9.6%.

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Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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