Galvan rated ISAT a buy at 695p on 11/2/2011 when Harbinger Capital Partners sold its remaining 14% stake in Inmarsat.

Satellite communications company Inmarsat got a boost on Thursday as Macquarie upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from 'neutral' and gave it a target price of 850p, saying it may at an inflection point.

Macquarie said it can no longer ignore a potential takeout scenario given the strategic value of Inmarsat’s global Ka/L-band footprint, access to niche markets generating above-peer 5%+ 3-year compound annual growth rate and sizeable spectrum holdings.

In addition, it pointed out that the shares are trading at a 10% discount to peers or 7x 2018 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, which it reckons is enough to warrant a second look.

The bank also argued that while a guidance downgrade is likely on the 4Q16 call, consensus estimates for 2018 revenues are already below management’s long-term outlook, which looks baked into the price.

“4Q16 results will likely confirm what investors already suspected for a long time: the 2018 guidance issued in early 2016 is untenable amid delays in airline orders, regulatory approvals and sub mix headwinds in its bread and butter segment, Maritime.

“However, this may be more of a formality - consensus revenue expectations for 2018 have approached our $1.38bn estimate versus management’s $1.45-1.60bn outlook.”

Inmarsat revenues up 4.3%, beating expectations

Revenues at Inmarsat rose 7 per cent in the final quarter of the year and 4.3 per cent overall in 2016, beating analysts’ expectations as strong growth in the satellite telecommunications company’s government and aviation divisions outweighed a fall in maritime business.

Group revenue at the British company hit $1.329bn in 2016, ahead of expectations of $1.307bn, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 9.5 per cent over the year to $794.8m and rose 9.2 per cent in the fourth quarter to $221.8m.Profit after tax took a hit, however, falling 23.9 per cent in the fourth quarter to $67.1m and 13.7 per cent over the year to $243.3m, driven by a rise in net financing costs.The company said it “remained confident” about the medium to long term outlook for the business but warned that its markets “continued to be challenging, with sustained pressure on customer expenditure, increasing competition and the arrival of new satellite capacity in some of our markets”. As a result, Inmarsat said there was “an unusually wide range” of possible outcomes for the performance of the business in 2017 and 2018, but made no changes to its guidelines for 2017 and 2018 revenue of $1.2-1.3bn and $1.3-1.5bn respectively and excluding an agreement with US wireless company Ligado.The company has been striking deals with major airlines such as Air New Zealand and British Airways to provide in flight wifi services as well as increasing government contracts. A key issue for Inmarsat has been whether in-flight broadband can grow enough to offset disappointing performance in its maritime division. Revenues in its aviation division were up 12.5 per cent over the year while government revenues rose 15.3 per cent. This helped to offset a fall in the maritime division – Inmarsat’s largest, accounting for two-fifths of revenues – of 3 per cent.The telecoms company has been the subject of takeover buzz recently, with shares rising in February after the head of US pay-television provider Dish Networks predicted sector consolidation. Analysts believe Dish sister company EchoStar is a logical potential buyer of Inmarsat.

Inmarsat plc reports First Quarter Results 2017

Performance Highlights
· Solid performance in Q1 2017, despite markets which continue to be challenging:
o Group revenue grew 11.3% to $332.2m, (grew 7.5% to $301.7m, excluding Ligado)
o EBITDA2 grew 9.2% to $181.5m (grew 1.8% to $151.0m, excluding Ligado)

· Outlook and future guidance, disclosed on 8 March 2017, remain unchanged

· Continued positive impact of Global Xpress ("GX"):
o GX delivered revenue of $32.1m in Q1 2017, mainly from Government customers
o Continue to expect launch of I-5 F4 satellite during Q2 2017

Maritime:
o Now over 10,000 vessels committed to Fleet Xpress ("FX")
o Distribution agreement signed with Satlink to install FX on over 1,500 vessels
o Resilient performance from FleetBroadband ("FB")

Government:
o Another strong performance, despite continued market uncertainty
o FirstNet contract win provides further validation of our strong US Government relationships

Aviation:
o Core business continued to grow, with over 16,500 connected terminals, and the first installations of JetConneX completed
o Further positive momentum achieved in in-flight connectivity ("IFC"), with 65 GX terminals installed by the end of the quarter, and over 950 expected aircraft under signed contracts
o Commitments to GX announced by AirAsia and Qatar Airways so far in second quarter, representing an additional 250 aircraft to utilise GX for IFC services
o On track for commercial service introduction of European Aviation Network ("EAN") during H2 2017, with launch of S-band satellite expected to take place by end of Q2 2017

Enterprise:
o Key end markets remain challenging, in particular Oil & Gas
o On-going focus on commercial opportunities around "Internet of Things"

Berenberg comment:
"We remain concerned about the Maritime declines and believe the company will find it tougher to return to growth than consensus expects. Enterprise has been significantly impacted by competition and for now remains in a downward spiral. It is our view that the easy-wins (eg Boeing take-or-pay) are now in the past and tougher comparables over the coming quarters, particularly within Maritime and Government, could highlight an underlying trajectory of slower, less profitable growth. Our 2018 EBITDA forecast sits 5% below consensus. We downgrade to Sell.

While the company has done a good job in lowering 2017 expectations, in our view, consensus estimates remain too high for future periods and we expect these to trend down over the coming months. Visibility remains low and on our estimates, given the lack of near-term earnings growth, the stock will still be trading on a blended P/E (includes 66% of Ligado opportunity) above 20x well into the next decade. We believe there needs to be increased visibility or a marked improvement in underlying trends to warrant such a high multiple. Our new lower DCF-based 710p price target offers 14% downside and we thus downgrade our recommendation to Sell."

Citigroup today (08/05/17) reaffirms its neutral investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and set its price target at 770p

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat confirmed the successful launch of the fourth, high-speed broadband communications satellite in its transformational Global Xpress (GX) constellation.

The company said Inmarsat GX is the world's first globally available, broadband connectivity service. It was created to enable communities across the world to benefit from the emerging digital society.

Inmarsat-5 F4 (I-5 F4) was launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Following satellite separation, the company acquired telemetry from its Perth ground station.

The launch team from Inmarsat and Boeing Network & Space Systems, the manufacturer of I-5 F4, were raising the spacecraft to a geostationary orbit, at which point the satellite will deploy its solar arrays and reflectors, and undergo payload testing.

I-5 F4 joined the three GX satellites already in orbit. Since December 2015, these delivered unprecedented service speeds, global coverage, reliability and security to users on land, at sea and in the air.

The fourth satellite added further capacity to the GX network and in-orbit redundancy that further upgraded the reliability and resilience of Inmarsat's service offerings.

StockMarketWire.com
Global mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat has awarded a contact for an additional Global Xpress satellite and revealed Qatar Airways had become the first Middle East megacarrier to select the new GX Aviation in-flight broadband solution.

Inmarsat said it had awarded the new GX satellite contract to Thales Alenia Space.

Inmarsat said the award reflected its strategy of adding capacity to its already established, unique, high-speed global broadband network in areas of high customer demand and against new customer commitments.

It said the satellite, which was targeted for launch in 2019, would be a Very High Throughput Satellite (V-HTS), providing capacity across the Middle East, Europe and the Indian subcontinent.

The payload would seamlessly become part of Inmarsat's existing GX high-speed global broadband network.

Inmarsat also announced that Qatar Airways had become the first Middle East megacarrier to select the group's advanced new GX Aviation in-flight broadband solution. Inmarsat said the next-generation service would initially be available to Qatar Airways passengers on board more than 130 aircraft, consisting of Airbus A350s and Boeing 777s.

It said GX Aviation technology had already been equipped on Qatar Airways' latest Airbus A350s and installations on the airline's remaining Airbus A350s, together with the Boeing 777s, would commence on a retrofit basis from this summer.

Inmarsat Aviation president Leo Mondale said: "Qatar Airways is one of the world's most successful, fastest growing and in-demand airlines, with an unwavering focus on providing the best service possible.

"It has offered Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband connectivity solution for over five years now. However, with our next generation GX Aviation service now live, its upgrade to true broadband on more than 130 aircraft initially will ensure passengers have access to consistent, reliable and high-speed connectivity wherever they fly.

"Qatar Airways considered all available options in the connectivity market and selected Inmarsat due to our unique infrastructure, proven aerospace partners, and committed long-term development strategy.

"Broadband transformation on the ground is already well advanced and we are able to transfer that into the very challenging in-flight environment, working with Qatar Airways to make connectivity a success.

"Our networks are engineered with multiple layers for redundancy and global coverage. Our design philosophy is to scale up capacity over time to fit the route systems of our airline customers and reflect the industry's real needs."

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat has won a 10-year contract to provide its GX Aviation service to Avianca.

Inmarsat said Avianca was the first Latin American airline group to adopt the GX Aviation service which would initially be made available to passengers on approximately 125 Avianca Airbus A320, A330 and Boeing 787 aircraft, with the potential for additional aircraft to be provisioned at a later date.

Inmarsat said Avianca's GX-equipped aircraft were currently expected to be rolled out starting at the end of the year.

The value of the contract was not disclosed.

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat's revenues rose to $688.2m inthe six months to the end of June - 9.4% up on last time despite still challenging markets.

EBITDA increased by 2% to $376.5m and the group has declared an interim dividend of 21.62 cents per share - up 5%.

Chief executive Rupert Pearce said: "With our on-going focus on operational execution, Inmarsat has continued to move forward in 2017, building on a strong performance towards the end of last year, despite on-going challenging markets.

"In the Maritime market, Fleet Xpress is rapidly becoming a compelling product for our customers, establishing itself with fast-growing revenues from both our direct sales channel and through our distribution partners.

"During this period, we have added more key distributors, which has increased the number of committed ships to Fleet Xpress to over 10,000, and driven the pace of net installations to 266 ships per quarter during the first half (compared to an average of 136 VSAT ship additions per quarter during 2016).

"The expected future escalation in take-up of Fleet Xpress provides our Maritime business with a strong foundation for future growth. FleetBroadband remains a solid performer, despite the expected continued ARPU-accretive migration of customers to Fleet Xpress, and we continue to see further market development opportunities, for example from our recently launched Fleet One product in the sizeable, and largely untapped, small vessel market.

"Our Government business continued to outperform against the competition. In the US, our partnership with Boeing continued to deliver material GX revenues. We also saw new contributions both from the CSSC contract, which we won last year, and a number of other confidential new contracts, one of which materially impacted the second quarter.

"Our successful participation in the FirstNet contract award, announced during the period, is another positive sign of our growing presence in the US market, but the contract will have no impact on our 2017 results. Outside the US, with the benefit of higher operational tempo, and further contract wins, we have sustained our business despite tough markets.

"Our core Aviation business (Business and General Aviation and Safety and Operational Services) delivered further solid growth over both quarters, with both ARPU and customer numbers rising.

"We continue to put in place the foundations for further growth, having achieved line-fit certification with all four of the leading manufacturers of business jets and installed 64 terminals for JetConneX, our GX product for BGA, by the end of the period.

"In IFC, we signed further contracts for GX connectivity services during the period, in particular with Qatar Airways in the Middle East and Avianca in Latin America and now have over 1,200 aircraft expected under signed IFC contracts.

"Discussions continue with many other airlines, whose fleets' aggregate connectivity requirements are of around 3,000 aircraft.

"The installation programme with Deutsche Lufthansa Group continues, bringing the number of installations to 101 aircraft, up from 65 at the end of the first quarter.

"Whilst revenue in our legacy Enterprise business declined in H1 2017, it remains a business area with strong medium to long term growth potential, both in the Energy segment with GX and, with next generation L-band services, in the emerging "Internet of Things" markets, such as transportation, e-logistics, agriculture, smart cities and mining & construction.

"In the first half we successfully delivered two important satellite launches. In May, a 4th GX satellite, Inmarsat-5 F4, was launched to provide in-orbit redundancy and additional capacity for our global GX network.

"Then, in June, the Inmarsat-S EAN satellite was launched to provide one of the foundations of the European Aviation Network, which remains on track to be commercially deployed towards the end of this year.

"Following the award to Inmarsat of the Qatar Airways IFC contract, we also announced the design and build of our 5th GX satellite, which is expected to be launched during 2019, to enhance and supplement our existing global network.

"We have also continued to build out the ground infrastructure and operational capability to support both GX and our evolving businesses.

"We are investing in our organisational infrastructure, cyber capabilities and our IT systems and processes to ensure that we have the sound foundations to support our demanding growth agenda.

"Our robust performance in the first half of 2017 validates Inmarsat's powerful position as the leading operator in global mobility markets, our operational and commercial strength, the uniqueness of our connectivity offerings and our continued success in commercialising our technology to service the requirements of our customers.

"We will continue to build on these strong foundations, supported by further investment into our organisational capabilities, using GX and the EAN to drive into new satellite broadband markets and to reposition our core L-band network for next generation opportunities."

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat's revenues rose by 4.8% to $358.3m in the third quarter and by 7.8% to 1,046.5m for the first nine months.

Third quarter maritime revenues were unchanged year-on-year but increased sequentially reflecting 26% increase in VSAT revenues but lower FleetBroadband and legacy product revenues.

Government revenues grew 4%, mainly reflecting stronger US results and aviation revenues were up 50% with growth in both Core business and IFC installation activity.

Inmarsat said Air Asia's selection of GX confirmed in Q3, bringing aircraft expected under signed IFC contracts to 1,300.

It said Enterprise returned to growth, driven by higher airtime usage and terminal sales following recent hurricanes.

GX airtime and related revenues, across the business units, was $42.3m (YTD: $102.1m).

EBITDA of $191.3m was down 6.5%. Inmarsat said the favourable impact of higher revenues more than offset by changes in revenue mix, particularly in Aviation, by further investment in IFC market capture and delivery, and by higher central operational delivery costs.

Looking ahead, it said: 'The progress being made in Maritime, Government and Aviation provides confidence about the medium to long term outlook for Inmarsat.

'However, our markets remain challenging and the outlook continues to be difficult to predict.

' Inmarsat's performance in 2017 and 2018 will continue to be particularly determined by our results in IFC and in Government, as we outlined in March 2017.'

divi not covered enough, low or static rev growth = s/p fall full results. the big
boys have scarperd. 450 p low ? BB

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat has noted an announcement made by its partner Thales today, confirming that Emirates intends to install Inmarsat's GX Aviation high-speed inflight broadband service on its Boeing 777X aircraft fleet.

The new agreement is part of plans by Emirates and Thales to develop state-of-the-art inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) on the airline's new Boeing 777X fleet.

Emirates has 150 Boeing 777X aircraft on firm order, with deliveries currently scheduled from 2020.

HSBC today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 570p (from 720p).

Berenberg today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 600p (from 640p).

Credit Suisse today reaffirms its outperform investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 810p (from 890p)

Barclays Capital today upgrades its investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) to equal weight (from underweight) and cut its price target to 600p (from 695p)

HSBC comment today:
"Most of Inmarsat’s revenues, costs and capex are recorded in USD, except c20% of opexgenerated in the UK. The recent strength of the GBP against the USD (up 5% since mid-November) has impacted EBITDAbut this is offset bychanges in D&Aand net financial charges. This has an overall positive impact of 5% on our EPS for 2017e and no change for 2018e. Our lower GBP target price is more directlydue to USD weakness (c-5% hit through the conversion) and also a roll-over effect (balance sheet starting point becomes end-2017). Overall our new target price is 530p, down from 570p.
Because of the high level of capex and inflated opex, Inmarsat’s dividend in cash is not covered. It could, however, remain at recent levels if management can demonstrate its confidence in the outlook. We believe a scrip dividend without cash would be artificial but is an option to consider, although it has not said anything on this . A cut is another, even though it would not please investors. If Ligado, the 5G project in the US that pays USD125m pa for ISAT’s spectrum, was to consider a suspension of its payments to Inmarsat, we believe Inmarsat would have no other option than to drastically cut the cash dividend (we currently assume stability for the coming years).We would also consider cutting our TP by 100p per share in this scenario. Considering all these risks, we maintain our Hold rating. An update is expected on 9 March (FY17 release)."

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its equal weight investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 550p (from 620p).

StockMarketWire.com
Inmarsat reported group revenue in 2017 rose by 5.4% to $1.40bn from $1.33bn but earnings fell 8% to $731.5m from $795m the year before.

The company said it would pay a final dividend of 12 cents per share, after reducing annual dividend to 20 cents per share, giving total dividend of 33.62 cents per share. The lower dividend comes as the company said it requires sufficient financial resources to investment in the IFC segment in aviation. The lack of visibility over future cash payments from Ligado Networks beyond the end of 2018 was also cited as a headwind.

Revenues of the group's largest division, maritime, fell 1.8% to $564.7m but its government (the firm's second largest business unit) and aviation (fourth largest) arms reported improved performance, up 11% and 36.7% respectively.

Profit after tax fell 25.1% to $182.3m from $243m. Rupert Pearce, Chief Executive Officer, said: 'Inmarsat delivered further operational and strategic progress in 2017, comprising both gratifying near term revenue growth as well as several important strategic proof-points around exciting medium term growth opportunities, especially in IFC. 'Our investment in Global Xpress, our high bandwidth global mobile satellite network, is starting to show material returns, generating over $140m of revenue in the year. Our strategic investment in GX will enable us to retain and develop our competitive positions in Maritime and Government and will ensure that we are well placed to access the substantial opportunity in IFC in Aviation.' 'In Maritime, we made important strategic progress in securing the long term future for Fleet Xpress, with significant commitments signed with leading distribution partners. After a challenging year in 2016, which continued into Q1 2017, we delivered quarter-on-quarter growth throughout the year, and year-on-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter.' 'In Government, we delivered on our strategy to diversify our contracted revenue base and product base, supported by another excellent operational performance during the year. In Aviation, we further established our market position in IFC, through commercial momentum and strategic investment, and our Core business delivered double digit revenue growth throughout 2017.' 'In Enterprise, notwithstanding current challenges, we remain optimistic about the long term future demand for M2M connectivity in the emerging global internet of things ("IoT") market.' 'Given Inmarsat's track record, unique capabilities and differentiated market position, we are well placed to continue to grow our revenues in 2018 and beyond and to capture significant additional medium term growth opportunities available to us, particularly in in-flight connectivity.'

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its neutral investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 580p (from 690p).

RBC Capital Markets today reaffirms its outperform investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 725p (from 825p).

Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 575p (from 850p).

Back to 2012 levels.

Think I may buy some of these for my ISA in April. Can't see them going bust and may be at an attractive price for a predator, though regulatory hurdles would probably scupper any bid.

Exane BNP Paribas today reaffirms its underperform investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 400p (from 610p).

HSBC today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISAT) and cut its price target to 365p (from 430p).

StockMarketWire.com
Satellite firm Inmarsat swung to a net profit in the first quarter of the year as revenue rose 5%, supported by growth from its aviation, enterprise and maritime divisions.

Net profit rose to $53.6m in the first quarter from a net loss of $5.6m the previous year. While, pre-tax profit rose to $56m from $1.3m.

Revenue rose 5% to $345.5m as revenue growth from the firm's maritime, aviation and enterprise divisions offset weaker revenue from its government division.

Inmarsat maintained its full-year guidance including annual capital expenditure of between $500m and $600m each year from 2018 to 2020. While 2018 revenue, excluding Ligado, was expected in the range of $1,300m to $1,500m.