The end of an earnings season can be a great time to discover new stocks and assess how companies are handling the current business environment. Let’s take a look at how Iridium (NASDAQ:IRDM) and the rest of the telecommunication services stocks fared in Q4.
The sector is a tale of two cities. Satellite telecommunication is generally buoyed by rising global demand for connectivity in costly-to-connect and remote areas. On the other hand, terrestrial telecommunication companies face an uphill battle, as they mostly sell into a deflationary market, where the price of moving a bit tends to decrease over time with better technology. Despite the differences in demand drivers, companies across the entire industry must contend competition from larger telecom conglomerates and hyperscalers expanding their own networks as well as newer entrants such as SpaceX’s StarLink.
The 6 telecommunication services stocks we track reported a strong Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 0.6%.
In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady as they are up 1.2% on average since the latest earnings results.
With a constellation of 66 low-earth orbit satellites providing coverage to every inch of the planet, Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) operates a global satellite network that provides voice and data services to customers in remote areas where traditional telecommunications are unavailable.
Iridium reported revenues of $212.9 million, flat year on year. This print fell short of analysts’ expectations by 3.2%. Overall, it was a mixed quarter for the company with a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates but a significant miss of analysts’ revenue estimates.
Iridium delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates of the whole group. Interestingly, the stock is up 33.1% since reporting and currently trades at $24.57.
Read our full report on Iridium here, it’s free.
Operating as a majority-owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems since its founding in 1983, Array (NYSE:Array) is a regional wireless telecommunications provider serving 4.6 million customers across 21 states with mobile phone, internet, and IoT services.
Array reported revenues of $60.33 million, up 131% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 7%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ revenue estimates.
Array achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat and fastest revenue growth among its peers. Although it had a fine quarter compared its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 4.2% since reporting. It currently trades at $48.24.
