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

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 64,012 call options on the company. This is an increase of 205% compared to the average volume of 20,956 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SIRI. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on Sirius XM in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Sirius XM from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Sirius XM from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Sirius XM from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.96.

Sirius XM Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SIRI opened at $25.91 on Friday. Sirius XM has a fifty-two week low of $20.47 and a fifty-two week high of $51.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.51 and a 200-day moving average of $26.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of -4.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.06.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sirius XM will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Sirius XM Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Stockholders 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 currently -16.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sirius XM

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Sirius XM by 37.2% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 282,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $800,000 after purchasing an additional 76,552 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Sirius XM by 23.9% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 49,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after purchasing an additional 9,542 shares during the last quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $754,000. R.H. Dinel Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sirius XM during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,545,000. Finally, Bfsg LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 35.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 4,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,235 shares during the period. 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.