ISAT.L

Inmarsat Plc has been trading publicly for a little more than two weeks and its share price on the London Stock Exchange has recovered from drops suffered during its first two days on the market. Inmarsat now is trading above its June 22 debut price of 2.87 pounds ($4.99) per share.

The stock began its uphill climb June 24, closing at 2.84 pounds ($4.93) and reached a historic high of 3.38 pounds ($5.87) June 30. The stock dropped throughout the next few trading days, bottoming out at 3.0975 pounds ($5.38) before showing recovering to close July 7 at 3.1550 pounds ($5.49).

Inmarsat’s stock moved without any announcements from the company, though it is typical for a company to enter a so-called “quiet period” following a public stock offering and at other significant points during the year, including the announcing of quarterly financial results. Until Inmarsat releases more details about its business performance, and when analysts begin covering the stock, expect the share price to fluctuate until investors find a comfort zone.

XMSR

XM Satellite Radio kicked off July with good news. The company announced July 1 the addition of 640,000 new net subscribers during the second quarter of 2005, bringing the total number of subscribers to more than 4.4 million. The gain represents an increase of 53 percent in new net additions compared to the same period a year ago and an 18 percent increase in new net additions compared to the 2005 first quarter. The company noted it was the best second quarter in XM’s history.

The news took Wall Street analysts by surprise. The new net additions were “significantly above our estimate of 552,000, the consensus of 550,000 and the high end of estimates at 610,000,” Sean Butson, analyst with Legg Mason, noted in a July 5 research report.

“Clearly, with results like this, in the face of a 30 percent price increase, the strong demand says a lot about the potential and price elasticity of satellite radio,” Alden Mahabir, analyst with Vintage Research said in a July 1 research report.

Analysts attributed the spike in subscriber additions to a variety of different factors: the success of the MyFi portable XM receiver, the company’s Roady2 promotion (new subscribers were eligible to receive a free Roady2 unit by mail from May 1 to July 2), the strength of automotive sales under General Motor‘s “Employee Discount for Everyone” promotion and the launch of Major League Baseball programming.

News of the subscriber figures pushed XM’s stock up $1.16 to a closing price of $34.82 July 1. The stock gave back some of that gain throughout the next two trading days, dropping to $34.24 July 6 before rebounding to $34.55 July 7.

PA & NSE

With no significant news from either New Skies Satellites Holdings Ltd. or Panamsat Holdings Corp. during the past two weeks, their respective stocks experienced slight ups and downs. But with quarterly financial announcements looming just around the corner, as well as the likelihood of new analyst coverage of New Skies, there is the potential for activity to pick up soon for these stocks.

*Currency conversion prices based on spot price quotes from http://www.xe.com during the 9 a.m. EDT hour on July 8.