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

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sirius XM

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SIRI. Sessa Capital IM L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the third quarter valued at approximately $77,983,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new stake in Sirius XM in the third quarter worth $67,598,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sirius XM during the third quarter valued at $46,173,000. Check Capital Management Inc. CA grew its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 597.7% in the fourth quarter. Check Capital Management Inc. CA now owns 1,145,731 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,123,000 after purchasing an additional 981,517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whitebox Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Sirius XM by 310.5% during the 3rd quarter. Whitebox Advisors LLC now owns 1,176,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,829,000 after buying an additional 890,048 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.69% of the company’s stock.

Sirius XM Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SIRI traded up $0.13 during trading on Thursday, reaching $25.92. 6,877,366 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,960,188. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.53. Sirius XM has a 52-week low of $20.47 and a 52-week high of $51.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of -4.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.20. Sirius XM had a negative net margin of 24.03% and a positive return on equity of 13.44%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sirius XM will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $29.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Sirius XM from $22.00 to $16.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced 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. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sirius XM presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.96.

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.