MCLEAN, Va. (AP) _ Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM) on Tuesday reported a loss of $31.7 million in its first quarter.

The McLean, Virginia-based company said it had a loss of 24 cents per share. Losses, adjusted to extinguish debt, were 6 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 16 cents per share.

The satellite phone company posted revenue of $145.3 million in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $141.5 million.

Iridium shares have fallen slightly more than 1% since the beginning of the year. The stock has dropped 11% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on IRDM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/IRDM

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News