Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Jun 19 2008, 12:25 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
A Goldman Sachs analyst dropped a bomb on Sirius and XM Satellite Radio today with a pessimistic report that caused both stocks to plunge. At the heart of analyst Mark Wienkes' report is this: Young people have no need for satellite radio. By 1 p.m. PT, Sirius shares had fallen 14% to $2.08 and XM shares were down nearly 18% to $8.55.
Kids today are less interested in satellite radio, Wienkes writes, what with iPods, iPhones and other music players out there competing for attention. On top of that, the cash flows of both companies are in decline. Wienkes expects larger losses from both in the future and now rates XM a "sell" and Sirius a "conviction sell." In other words, call your broker immediately.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 16 2008, 11:11 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Shares of XM and Sirius got a boost today after FCC Chairman Kevin Martin gave his approval to the $4.2 billion merger of the satellite radio companies. Both companies' shares were up nearly 5% at 11:30 a.m. PST, with XM shares at $11.38 and Sirius shares at $2.66. Martin approved after the companies said they would devote 24 channels to noncommercial and minority programming. They also agreed to freeze prices for three years, offer a-la-carte pricing and provide interoperable radios.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 14 2008, 06:07 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, E*Trade, Intel, Sirius, XM Satellite Radio, JetBlue, Dell, Take-Two Interactive, Electronic Arts
Rating:
Most companies on Nasdaq did fairly well with the shorts in the two-week period which ended on March 31. The two tremendous exceptions were Level 3, where short interest moved up 20.3 million shares to 243.9 million, and Sirius, where shares sold short jumped 40.4 million to 137.8 million.
In a tough stock market and credit environment, it is not hard to see why investors would place bets against both companies. Each stock trades near its 52-week low. Level 3 recently pushed out its president. Although it is in an attractive business, bandwidth infrastructure, it is a patch-work of M&A work with a large amount of debt and almost no cash-flow. In other words, a liquidation candidate in a deep recession.
Sirius is also hurt by a high debt-load -- over $1.2 billion -- and negative operating income. If the company's merger with XM Satellite does not go through, it may not be able to survive as a standalone company either.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 03 2008, 11:45 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Apple, Comcast, Ford, DirecTV, Verizon, Sirius, XM Satellite Radio, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Toyota, GM, Clear Channel, Dish Network
Rating:
When the Justice Department cleared the merger of Sirius with XM Satellite there was anticipation that once the deal got done the shares of both companies would go up. A year ago, the combination was viewed as a dream deal.
If anything, the shares have dropped. Sirius is below $3 and XM is below $13. The market began to realize that the year wasted on getting government approval was a year the companies need to stay competitive. XM has over $1 billion in debt. Refinancing it in the current market would be nearly impossible. Selling shares would lead to extremely large dilution. As we recently noted, Goldman Sachs even put Sirius on its "Conviction Sell List" with a price target of $2.25.
Growth at Sirius has slowed considerably. In the fourth quarter revenue rose only 29% to $250 million. But, for the full year, revenue was up 45%. Subscriber deactivations in the fourth quarter were almost 540,000 compared to 330,000 in the same quarter of 2006. The firm's net loss was $166 million. Long-term debt was almost $1.3 billion.
Read More...
-
Posted
Mar 24 2008, 02:04 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
So combining the only two satellite radio providers in the U.S. won't create a monopoly. Huh? That's what the Justice Department said today after giving its blessing to the merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Both stocks soared today on the news. XM shares closed up 15% to $13.79, and Sirius shares closed up nearly 9% to $3.15.
The first thing I thought after seeing the news was that the price of satellite radio will go up. But the DOJ sees it differently. The merged company won't be able to raise prices, accordng to the DOJ, because doing so would send customers into the arms of traditional radio, HD radio, iPods and the audio content available on cell phones.
Read More...
-
Posted
Dec 29 2007, 07:39 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
One of the most interesting sets of numbers that hits Wall Street every two weeks is short interest in stock traded on the major exchanges. The number represents bets being made against a stock going up and in favor of its falling. Several big names are usually high on the list, including Level 3, Sirius, and Intel.
For the period ending December 14, shares sold short went way up for the three big discount brokers. It makes sense that E*Trade is on the list. It has had such significant problems with sub-prime financial instruments that its short interest at 53.7 million shares, up 3.9 million from the last measurement date on November 30, is understandable.
But, shares sold short in Schwab moved up 6.1 million to 27.8 million for the period. At TDAmeritrade the short interest jumped by 8.2 million shares to 17.8 million.
Read More...
-
Posted
Dec 16 2007, 02:30 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
It is hard to find stocks that could double in a fairly short period of time. It rarely happens with shares in really big companies. There are exceptions like Apple and Amazon. But, most stocks that make big moves are smaller, and, they are often shares that have had a big fall.
For a stock to double over a few quarters it needs a catalyst of amazing earnings, a big customer win, a break-up or a buy-out. At 24/7 Wall St. we went through hundreds of companies to find ones with shares that could double. Each firm had to be matched with one or more compelling reasons to create a significant spike.
We came up with the list, and if you want to get greater detail on the analysis you can see it here.
Read More...
-
Posted
Dec 04 2007, 08:39 PM
by
Bradley Meacham
Rating:
This post was written by Douglas McIntyre of the blog 24/7 Wall Street:
Goldman Sachs hit Sirius and XM Satellite with serious downgrades today. It knocked down shares of both companies by 5%.
What analysts don't want to say is that the future of satellite radio in the U.S. could already be coming to an end. A merger between the two companies may be the only alternative they have to stay in business. Each company has well over a billion dollars in debt. Sirius had negative operating income last quarter of $106 million on $242 million in revenue. XM was in the red to the tune of $108 million on sales of $278 million. And XM shows only $275 million in cash on its balance sheet.
Sirius had 7.7 million subscribers at the end of last quarter and XM had 8.6 million, but those numbers no longer double year-over-year. That may be because other forms of entertainment have taken over in the car. When satellite radio was launched a decade ago the rear-seat entertainment device was not all the rage. The Apple iPod did not exist.
Read More...
|
