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

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 44,178 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 303% compared to the average daily volume of 10,965 call options.

Sirius XM Stock Down 1.1%

Sirius XM stock opened at $22.08 on Friday. Sirius XM has a 1-year low of $18.69 and a 1-year high of $27.41. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $21.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Sirius XM Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. Sirius XM’s payout ratio is presently 38.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SIRI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (up previously from $28.00) on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Friday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set 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. Zacks Research upgraded Sirius XM from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 stock was sold at an average price of $21.64, for a total value of $39,925.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,969 shares in the company, valued at $432,129.16. This trade represents a 8.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sirius XM

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its holdings in Sirius XM by 4.2% in the third quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 124,807,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,904,886,000 after purchasing an additional 5,030,425 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,233,922 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 661.3% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,577,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,630,000 after buying an additional 3,107,313 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Sirius XM by 4.8% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,635,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,336,000 after acquiring an additional 119,755 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Check Capital Management Inc. CA raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 895,247 shares during the period. 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.