Looking for a small-cap stock that has been hitting fresh highs recently and reported 300% profit growth last quarter? You're in luck. Iridium Communications provides voice and data communications via satellite to areas served by terrestrial networks. On Thursday top-ranked Iridium stock reached an important technical milestone, seeing its Relative Strength (RS) Rating jump into the 80-plus percentile with an improvement to 81, up from 78 the day before.
Iridium Communications is based in McLean, Va., near Washington, D.C. it operates 66 global cross-linked satellites. The company says on its website that it's "the only satellite communications provider that works anywhere on the planet."
Iridium Stock Steps Up Into Higher Group
The 81 RS Rating shows that Iridium stock is among the top 19% of stocks for price performance over the last 12 months. It's notable because research reveals that the market's top winners typically have an 80 or better RS Rating as they launch their biggest climbs.
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Iridium stock hit its latest all-time high on April 24 at 68.34. That followed a new high at 65.41 on Feb. 21. Its stock has nearly doubled in just over 14 months, from an intraday low 32.88 on May 12, 2022, to a 60.78 close Thursday. The company is slated to report second quarter earnings the morning of July 25, which could send shares to a fresh high, or reverse the trend.
Among it other key ratings Iridium stock has a good but not yet great 76 Composite Rating, out of 99. Its Earnings Per Share Rating is 72 and it has a C- Accumulation/Distribution Rating on an A+ to E scale. The A/D Rating gauges buying by institutions such as insurance funds, ETFs, mutual funds and the like. Look for that to improve to a C or better. Despite that, the number of funds showing interest by buying its shares rose from 582 in December to 639 in March and 677 in June.
Watchlist candidate Iridium stock is trying to complete a flat base with a 68.34 buy point. See if the stock can break out in heavy trading. It's a later-stage pattern, and investors should be aware that those can succeed but are less likely to launch sustained new climbs than early stage bases.
Sales, Profit Growth Steady
Revenue growth fell last quarter from 24% the prior quarter to a still respectable 22%, or $205.3 million. The bottom line grew 300% to 8 cents per share. The prior quarter the company's EPS improved from a 4-cent loss a year earlier to a 1-cent loss. The last two quarters of 2022 it posted 33% and 200% EPS growth.
Iridium stock holds the No. 1 rank among its peers in the nine-company Telecom Services-Wireless industry group. Tiny Spok Holdings, with about $135 million annual revenue, is No. 2. And telecom giant T-Mobile US, with a roughly $80 billion annual run rate, is No. 3.
As you try to find the best stocks to buy and watch, be sure to pay attention to relative price strength.
The exclusive Relative Strength Rating from Investor's Business Daily tracks share price performance with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The rating shows how a stock's price movement over the trailing 52 weeks holds up against all the other stocks in our database.
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