Beam Communications’ ‘Iridium GO!’ international satellite hotspot remains in demand

Beam Communications (ASX:BCC) shareholders have enjoyed modest gains in a market deeply in the red today as the company wins another order to make more of its Iridium GO! devices in Australia. 

That order is made by US-partner Iridium, listed on the NASDAQ exchange. For the last eight years, both companies have joined forces to penetrate the satcomm market.

The Iridium GO! device is a satellite-linked hotspot service which can be used anywhere on earth outside of traditional phone tower signal; that unique product profile is no doubt part of Beam’s ability to weather recessionary and inflationary environments. It works by connecting to US partner Iridium’s satellite network in orbit. 

US partner sheltered from the storm 

Worth noting is that US partner Iridium largely weathered covid outright, and five year returns for that stock are up over 320%. Iridium sells its hardware to private organisations, individuals, and also governments. 

Beam Communication’s hand in making the Iridium GO! satellite hotspots provide it exposure to some of this market stability; its newest received order is valued at US$1.6m (which is $2.5m Australian) and is due for delivery at some stage in FY24.

Also worth noting is Beam has currently outperformed the ASX technology sector by 17.8% on a one year returns basis across the last twelve months; some of the most volatile in, for many people, a generation. 

With that said, Beam is not completely free from the storm: 

• One year returns are down -16.9% 

• Year to date performance down -41.6% 

The company has a market cap of $21.1m and is ranked 145 of 235 constituents in the materials index.

A look at Beam Communication's five year charts