Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) Stock Price

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Sirius XM from $24 to $28, while keeping an underweight rating. The new target still implies about an 8.5% downside from the stock’s current price.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed overall: Sirius XM has four Buy ratings, four Hold ratings, and three Sell ratings, with a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $28.
• Recent results were slightly better than expected, with quarterly EPS of $0.72 versus estimates of $0.70 and revenue of $2.09 billion versus $2.07 billion expected. The company also saw notable institutional buying, including large position increases from Dimensional Fund Advisors and AQR Capital Management.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI - Get Free Report) had its target price upped by Morgan Stanley from $24.00 to $28.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "underweight" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley's target price indicates a potential downside of 8.50% from the company's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SIRI. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Sirius XM from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Citigroup restated a "sell" rating and issued a $22.00 price objective (up from $19.00) on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Monday, May 4th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $46.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Barrington Research raised their price target on shares of Sirius XM from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $28.00.

Sirius XM Price Performance

SIRI stock opened at $30.60 on Tuesday. The business's fifty day moving average price is $28.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.74. Sirius XM has a 12-month low of $19.76 and a 12-month high of $31.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $10.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.95.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.07 billion. Sirius XM had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 9.86%.Sirius XM's revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sirius XM will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sirius XM news, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 20,744 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total value of $618,793.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 20,163 shares in the company, valued at $601,462.29. This represents a 50.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Sirius XM by 262.1% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,301,181 shares of the company's stock valued at $145,426,000 after buying an additional 4,560,821 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Sirius XM by 165.2% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,191,440 shares of the company's stock valued at $117,327,000 after acquiring an additional 3,233,922 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Sirius XM by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,487,415 shares of the company's stock valued at $69,731,000 after acquiring an additional 25,906 shares in the last quarter. Check Capital Management Inc. CA boosted its stake in Sirius XM by 2.0% in the first quarter. Check Capital Management Inc. CA now owns 2,942,595 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,915,000 after acquiring an additional 59,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the fourth quarter worth about $57,124,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 10.69% of the company's stock.

About Sirius XM

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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