Sifting through countless of stocks in the Diversified Telecommunication Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Bandwidth Inc. or Iridium Communications Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc.

Bandwidth Inc. operates as a cloud-based software-powered communications platform-as-a-service provider in the United States and internationally. The company’s platform enables enterprises to create, scale, and operate voice or messaging communications services across various mobile applications or connected devices. Its platform also provides voice services through SIP or programmable voice application programming interfaces (API); software APIs for messaging; communications solutions with integrated local emergency services; number management solutions; insights on customer’s voice and messaging performance to make data-driven decisions; and carrier integrations services, which includes unified communications as a service, contact center as a service, conversational AI, and speech-to-text/text-to-speech platforms. In addition, the company offers Call Assure that provides hands-free alternative routing; application to person messaging solutions that supports SMS and MMS on local numbers, toll free numbers, and short codes; Bandwidth Maestro, an enterprise cloud communications platform; and Conversational AI Integrations. It serves technology companies, enterprise customers, and software-as-a-service platforms. The company was formerly known as Bandwidth.com, Inc. and changed its name to Bandwidth Inc. in September 2017. Bandwidth Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Iridium Communications Inc. provides mobile voice and data communications services and products to businesses, the United States and foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers mobile satellite communications services for land mobile end users and aviation sectors; broadband terminals, embedded devices, and handsets for merchant shipping, fishing, leisure and research vessels, and specialized watercraft; satellite-based IoT services; hosted payload and other data services; and other data services and engineering services. It also provides postpaid mobile voice and data satellite communications; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications; push-to-talk; broadband data; Internet of Things (IoT); and satellite time and location services. In addition, the company offers personnel tracking devices; asset tracking devices for equipment, vehicles, and aircrafts; beyond-line-of-sight aircraft communications applications; maritime communications applications; specialized communications solutions for high-value individuals; and mobile communications and data devices for the military and other government agencies, such as secure satellite handsets; and maintenance services for the U.S. government’s dedicated gateway. Further, it provides satellite handsets, voice and data modems, broadband data devices, and IoT data devices; and various accessories for its devices that include batteries, holsters, earbud headphones, portable auxiliary antennas, antenna adaptors, USB data cables, and charging units. The company sells its products and services to commercial end users through a wholesale distribution network that includes service providers, and value-added resellers and value-added manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Iridium Holdings LLC and changed its name to Iridium Communications Inc. in September 2009. Iridium Communications Inc. is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

Latest Diversified Telecommunication Services and Bandwidth Inc., Iridium Communications Inc. Stock News

As of July 30, 2026, Bandwidth Inc. had a $1.2 billion market capitalization, compared to the Diversified Telecommunication Services median of $6.2 million. Bandwidth Inc.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 194.06% in the past year.

Currently, Bandwidth Inc. does not have a price-earnings ratio. Bandwidth Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $788.4 million with a 0.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 19.9%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.743 per share for the current fiscal year. Bandwidth Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

Currently, Iridium Communications Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 54.8. Iridium Communications Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $884.2 million with a 10.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 3.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.080 per share for the current fiscal year. Iridium Communications Inc. currently has a 1.3% dividend yield.

How We Compare Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Bandwidth Inc.	BAND	D
Iridium Communications Inc.	IRDM	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Bandwidth Inc. has a Value Score of 30, which is Expensive. Iridium Communications Inc. has a Value Score of 21, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Bandwidth Inc. or Iridium Communications Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Bandwidth Inc. or Iridium Communications Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Bandwidth Inc.	BAND	A
Iridium Communications Inc.	IRDM	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Bandwidth Inc. has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong. Iridium Communications Inc. has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Bandwidth Inc.	BAND	C
Iridium Communications Inc.	IRDM	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Bandwidth Inc. has a Quality Score of 57, which is Average. Iridium Communications Inc. has a Quality Score of 81, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: Iridium Communications Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Iridium Communications Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Bandwidth Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Iridium Communications Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. Grades

In addition to Growth, Value and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Bandwidth Inc. or Iridium Communications Inc. Stock?

Overall, Bandwidth Inc. stock has a Value Score of 30, Growth Score of 89 and Quality Score of 57.

Iridium Communications Inc. stock has a Value Score of 21, Growth Score of 100 and Quality Score of 81.

Comparing Bandwidth Inc. and Iridium Communications Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.