Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI)

Key Points

• Call-option activity surged for Sirius XM, with investors purchasing 36,137 call options—about 95% above the average volume of 18,530.
• Analysts remain mixed, with four Buy, five Hold and three Sell ratings; the consensus is Hold with a target price of $30.82. Shares traded at $30.93 after rising $1.30.
• Sirius XM reported quarterly revenue of $2.16 billion, slightly ahead of estimates, but earnings per share of $0.70 missed expectations. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share, implying a 3.5% yield.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders bought 36,137 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 95% compared to the average volume of 18,530 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SIRI. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $26.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Barrington Research lifted their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sirius XM presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.82.

Sirius XM Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SIRI traded up $1.30 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $30.93. The company had a trading volume of 2,136,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,050,604. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.95. Sirius XM has a twelve month low of $19.76 and a twelve month high of $32.66. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.08). Sirius XM had a return on equity of 9.37% and a net margin of 10.23%.The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sirius XM will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Sirius XM Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 10th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Sirius XM's payout ratio is 43.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sirius XM news, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 20,744 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $618,793.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 20,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $601,462.29. The trade was a 50.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 3.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sirius XM

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SIRI. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors boosted its position in Sirius XM by 5.4% during the second quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 9,862 shares of the company's stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Sirius XM by 3.2% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,916 shares of the company's stock valued at $322,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM in the second quarter valued at $961,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Sirius XM by 44.1% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,823 shares of the company's stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 864 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Sirius XM by 421.7% during the 2nd quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 3,130 shares of the company's stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 2,530 shares during the last quarter. 10.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sirius XM Company Profile

Sirius XM Holdings Inc is a leading audio entertainment company specializing in subscription-based satellite and streaming radio services. Formed in 2008 through the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, the company delivers a broad range of programming across music, sports, news, talk and comedy channels. Sirius XM's offerings include exclusive live sports play-by-play, artist-curated music channels, news coverage from major networks and original talk and entertainment series.

Headquartered in New York City, Sirius XM serves listeners throughout the United States and Canada, reaching tens of millions of subscribers.

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