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

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 64,012 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 205% compared to the typical volume of 20,956 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on SIRI. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Sirius XM from $22.00 to $16.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Sirius XM from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Pivotal Research reduced their price objective on Sirius XM from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Sirius XM from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.96.

Sirius XM Price Performance

Shares of Sirius XM stock traded up $0.13 on Thursday, hitting $25.92. 6,877,366 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,960,188. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.06. Sirius XM has a 1-year low of $20.47 and a 1-year high of $51.60.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.20. Sirius XM had a positive return on equity of 13.44% and a negative net margin of 24.03%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sirius XM will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. Sirius XM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -16.85%.

Institutional Trading of Sirius XM

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 209.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 87,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,062,000 after acquiring an additional 58,993 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Sirius XM during the fourth quarter worth $268,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in shares of Sirius XM by 383,152.8% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 137,971 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,146,000 after buying an additional 137,935 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the fourth quarter worth $622,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of Sirius XM by 262.7% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 104,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,387,000 after buying an additional 75,817 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.69% of the company’s stock.

Sirius XM Company Profile

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.