Shares of Iridium Communications slid 6.7% to $46.59 on June 12 after ARK Invest, one of the stock's most visible institutional backers, sold shares for a second consecutive day, unloading a combined ~$8.4 million in stock and rattling a name that had already been choppy this month. ARK Invest Dumps Over $26 Million in Iridium Shares Ahead of SpaceX IPO — Is Cathie Wood Ditching One Space Bet for a Bigger One?
Shares of Iridium Communications tumbled 6.7% to $46.59 as Cathie Wood's ARK Invest accelerated a multi-day liquidation of the satellite stock, raising a pointed question: is the firm's most prominent growth investor losing faith, or simply reshuffling the deck?
• The Selling Is Far Larger Than First Reported. On June 10, ARK sold 186,720 shares of Iridium worth $8.42 million , but that was just the warm-up. On June 11, the firm unloaded another 400,301 shares across its ARKQ and ARKX ETFs, totaling $18.26 million — bringing the two-day total above $26 million. ARK's remaining Iridium position is now worth roughly $106 million, about 0.71% of its equity portfolio, with ARK still owning about 6% of all outstanding Iridium shares.
The investor's estimated purchase price across all trades is $217 million, implying a ~51% loss on the position — a painful backdrop for a forced trim.
• SpaceX May Be the Real Reason. ARK sold roughly $222.87 million across 20 companies on Thursday alone, and the massive offloading comes ahead of the SpaceX IPO, set to debut on U.S. markets Friday.
SpaceX is priced at $135 per share at a $1.77 trillion valuation — and Wood is one of Elon Musk's most vocal champions. Selling a satellite company to buy into a bigger satellite company creates a direct competitive headwind for Iridium's narrative, since SpaceX's Starlink is the dominant force in low-Earth-orbit broadband.
• Iridium's Fundamentals Show Cracks Behind the Rally. The stock has surged ~192% year-to-date, but the numbers underneath are softer. Q1 2026 EPS of $0.20 missed forecasts of $0.33 by nearly 40%, even as revenue of $219.1 million barely edged past expectations.
Management guided 2026 service revenue to be flat to up just 2%.
One June report flagged Iridium among the least attractive names in communications services, with a P/E of roughly 50x — far above industry medians.
• Analysts and Valuation Are at Odds With the Price. With Iridium recently trading near $51.78 against a consensus analyst target of just $36.38 , Raymond James has already downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform on valuation concerns. When a stock's biggest cheerleader sells and Wall Street's average target sits ~22% below the current price, shareholders need to ask whether the satellite optimism priced into this name can survive without ARK's buying support.