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Sirius XM (SIRI) Q1 Earnings Beat, Subscriber Revenues Rise

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Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2021 earnings of 7 cents per share that beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 16.7% but remained unchanged year over year.

Total revenues on a reported basis increased 5.4% year over year to $2.05 billion. The figure beat the consensus mark by 3%. On a pro-forma basis, revenues increased 5.3% year over year.

Subscriber revenues (78.3% of total revenues) rose 1.6% from the year-ago quarter to $1.61 billion.

Meanwhile, advertisement revenues (17.2%) increased 24.2% year over year to $354 million. Equipment revenues (2.8% of total revenues) surged 39% year over year to $57 million.

Other revenues (1.7% of total revenues) decreased 16.3% from the year-ago quarter to $36 million.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

 

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Quote

Sirius XM Standalone Details

Sirius XM segment pro-forma revenues were $1.61 billion, up 2% year over year. While the total subscriber base declined 0.8% to 34.49 million, the company witnessed growth of 2.5% in ARPU, which was $14.3.

Self-pay subscriber count increased 3% year over year to 30.01 million. The company lost 215K net self-pay subscribers in the reported quarter.

Sirius XM traffic user count declined 4% year over year to 9.322 million. Canada subscribers dropped 3% to 2.6 million.

Additionally, average self-pay monthly churn rate was 1.6% in the first quarter, down 20 basis points (bps) year over year.

Subscriber revenues rose 1.6% year over year to $1.48 billion. Moreover, Equipment revenues increased 39% year over year to $57 million.

However, advertising revenues were $42 million, down 4.5% year over year. Other revenues declined 16.3% year over year to $36 million.

Pandora Details

Pandora’s pro-forma revenues increased 19.8% year over year to $442 million owing to 29.5% growth in advertising revenues, which totaled $312 million. Subscriber revenues climbed 1.6% year over year to $130 million.

The rise in ad revenues was backed by an increase in first-quarter monetization to $85.69 per thousand hours, up 36.9% year over year.

However, ARPU decreased 2.6% year over year to $6.67.

Monthly active users were 55.87 million at the end of the reported quarter, down from 60.92 million in the year-ago quarter. Ad-supported listener hours declined 8.3% year over year to 2.87 billion.

Pandora exited the first quarter with 6.456 million self-pay subscribers, up 3% year over year.

Operating Details

In the first quarter, total operating expenses increased 4.9% year over year to $1.55 billion.

Revenue share and royalty costs were up 8.8% year over year to $640 million. Programming & content costs were $122 million, up 10.9%. Transmission costs increased 20.5% year over year to $47 million.

Cost of equipment remained flat year over year at $4 million. Customer service & billing costs declined 0.9% year over year to $115 million.

Subscriber acquisition costs decreased 13.1% year over year to $86 million. Engineering, design and development expenses contracted 10% from the year-ago quarter to $54 million.

Sales and marketing expenses decreased 2.9% to $202 million. Meanwhile, general and administrative costs increased 16.5% to $106 million.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.7% year over year to $682 million.

Balance Sheet

As of Mar 31, 2021, cash and cash equivalents were $59 million compared with $71 million as of Dec 31, 2020.

Long-term debt, as of Mar 31, 2021, was $8.5 billion compared with $7.8 billion as of Dec 31, 2020.

At the end of the first quarter, Sirius XM’s net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA ratio was 3.4 times.

2021 Guidance

Revenues are expected at $8.35 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is estimated to be $2.575 billion.

The company anticipates adding almost 800K Sirius XM self-pay net subscribers in 2021.

Free cash flow is expected at $1.6 billion.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Currently, Sirius XM carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (JAKK - Free Report) , Nexstar Media Group, Inc (NXST - Free Report) and TEGNA Inc. (TGNA - Free Report) are some other top-ranked stocks in the broader consumer discretionary sector, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Nextstar Media, TEGNA and JAKK Pacific are scheduled to report their quarterly results on May 4, 10 and 12, respectively.

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