Sirius XM Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:SIRI)

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 41,683 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 261% compared to the average daily volume of 11,531 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kristina Salen sold 1,845 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.64, for a total transaction of $39,925.80. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $432,129.16. This trade represents a 8.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sirius XM

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 4.2% during the third quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 124,807,117 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,904,886,000 after purchasing an additional 5,030,425 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Sirius XM by 165.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,191,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,327,000 after buying an additional 3,233,922 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sirius XM during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,152,000. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its position in Sirius XM by 270.0% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 1,933,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,003,000 after acquiring an additional 1,410,963 shares during the period. Finally, Check Capital Management Inc. CA increased its position in Sirius XM by 76.7% in the 3rd quarter. Check Capital Management Inc. CA now owns 2,061,843 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,989,000 after acquiring an additional 895,247 shares during the period. 10.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on SIRI shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Sirius XM in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Sirius XM from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $23.00 price target on shares of Sirius XM in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Sirius XM in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (up from $28.00) on shares of Sirius XM in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.29.

Sirius XM Stock Down 0.5%

SIRI stock opened at $20.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $21.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.32. Sirius XM has a 12 month low of $18.69 and a 12 month high of $27.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.92.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. Sirius XM had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 8.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($8.74) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sirius XM will post 3.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. Sirius XM’s payout ratio is currently 38.16%.

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.