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

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 70,533 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 243% compared to the typical volume of 20,549 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Jonelle Procope sold 16,672 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.97, for a total transaction of $499,659.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,354 shares in the company, valued at $550,069.38. This trade represents a 47.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 20,744 shares of Sirius XM stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.83, for a total transaction of $618,793.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 20,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $601,462.29. This represents a 50.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sirius XM

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in shares of Sirius XM in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Aberdeen Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Sirius XM during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Sirius XM in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Sirius XM in the second quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sirius XM by 158.5% during the first quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 794 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 10.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price 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, July 31st. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Friday, July 31st. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (up from $34.00) on shares of Sirius XM in a research report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of Sirius XM in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Sirius XM from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.92.

Sirius XM Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of SIRI stock traded up $0.45 on Friday, reaching $28.84. 675,677 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,957,043. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.46. Sirius XM has a one year low of $19.76 and a one year high of $32.66. The stock has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a PE ratio of 11.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.22.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. Sirius XM had a return on equity of 9.37% and a net margin of 10.23%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Sirius XM will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 10th. Sirius XM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.20%.

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.