StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI)

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) in a report released on Saturday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on SIRI. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Sirius XM in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a neutral rating and a $4.00 target price for the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $3.60 to $4.10 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Friday, January 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $4.50 to $3.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $4.74.

Sirius XM Stock Performance

Shares of SIRI stock opened at $3.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $4.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.67. The stock has a market cap of $12.12 billion, a PE ratio of 9.84, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. Sirius XM has a 52-week low of $3.11 and a 52-week high of $7.95.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. Sirius XM had a net margin of 14.05% and a negative return on equity of 42.54%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sirius XM will post 0.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.0266 dividend. This represents a $0.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Sirius XM’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.25%.

Insider Activity at Sirius XM

In other Sirius XM news, Director James E. Meyer sold 800,000 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.92, for a total transaction of $3,936,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,091,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,370,042.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director James E. Meyer sold 800,000 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.92, for a total value of $3,936,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,091,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,370,042.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Joseph A. Inzerillo sold 107,611 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.90, for a total transaction of $527,293.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 746,816 shares in the company, valued at $3,659,398.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sirius XM

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Berkshire Hathaway Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 315.6% during the 4th quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 40,243,058 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,130,000 after buying an additional 30,559,834 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Sirius XM by 482.9% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,641,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,178,000 after purchasing an additional 12,129,166 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Sirius XM by 169.6% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 10,303,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,572,000 after purchasing an additional 6,482,109 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Sirius XM in the 4th quarter worth about $31,127,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Sirius XM by 18.1% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,762,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $130,295,000 after buying an additional 4,411,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 10.69% of the company’s stock.

About Sirius XM

Sirius XM Holdings Inc operates as an audio entertainment company in North America. It operates in two segments, Sirius XM, and Pandora and Off-platform. The company's Sirius XM segment provides music, sports, entertainment, comedy, talk, news, traffic and weather channels, and other content, as well as podcast and infotainment services on subscription fee basis; and live, curated, and exclusive and on demand programming services through satellite radio systems and streamed through applications for mobile and home devices, and other consumer electronic equipment.