Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) Given Buy Rating at Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Benchmark currently has a $43.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on SIRI. Guggenheim upgraded Sirius XM from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Sirius XM from $32.50 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $47.50 price objective on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Monday, July 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $3.40 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Sirius XM in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.25.

Sirius XM Trading Up 1.9 %

Sirius XM stock opened at $27.61 on Tuesday. Sirius XM has a 12-month low of $22.18 and a 12-month high of $57.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $27.27 and a 200 day moving average of $29.87.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Sirius XM had a net margin of 14.56% and a negative return on equity of 52.15%. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.20 billion. On average, analysts predict that Sirius XM will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Sirius XM Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.266 dividend. This is a boost from Sirius XM’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Sirius XM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 321.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 144,723 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.60, for a total value of $4,573,246.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 98,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,126,282.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought 1,259,259 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.95 per share, for a total transaction of $31,418,512.05. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 108,719,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,712,541,245.60. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 144,723 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.60, for a total transaction of $4,573,246.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 98,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,126,282.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 2,646,761 shares of company stock worth $65,952,329. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sirius XM

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,036,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its stake in Sirius XM by 9.9% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,124,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,325,000 after purchasing an additional 101,713 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sirius XM by 1,205.4% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 452,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,756,000 after purchasing an additional 417,900 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Sirius XM by 1.1% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 579,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,250,000 after purchasing an additional 6,231 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,682,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $299,111,000 after purchasing an additional 363,551 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.