Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Undecided, What Should You Do?

Is it smart to be bullish on Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM)?

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are tons of gauges shareholders can use to watch the equity markets. Some of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can outpace the market by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as crucial, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to look at the financial markets. There are many incentives for a bullish insider to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Furthermore, let’s study the newest info surrounding Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM).

Hedge fund activity in Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM)

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 14% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

Out of the hedge funds we follow, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM). Royce & Associates has a $10.4 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners, with a $3 million position; 2.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Douglas T. Granat’s Trigran Investments, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners.

Consequently, certain money managers have been driving this bullishness. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, created the most outsized position in Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM). Royce & Associates had 10.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners also made a $3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new IRDM investors: Douglas T. Granat’s Trigran Investments, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Whitney Tilson’s T2 Partners.

How are insiders trading Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM)?

Insider buying is best served when the company in focus has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM). These stocks are IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT), Lumos Networks Corp (NASDAQ:LMOS), Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG), RigNet Inc (NASDAQ:RNET), and Premiere Global Services, Inc. (NYSE:PGI). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified communication services industry and their market caps are similar to IRDM’s market cap.