Sirius XM Gets Another Upgrade

March 17, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

upgradeSirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is now no longer involved in a low-ball buyout attempt by John Malone and Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMCA). Last Friday we saw Bank of America Merrill Lynch issue a positive report on the standalone company, and now we have a similar call from Evercore Partners.

Shares of Sirius XM were reinstated with an Overweight rating at Evercore. What investors need to keep in mind here is that Evercore had made a very positive analyst upgrade to Overweight from Equal Weight right at the start of January, based on upside from the coming telematics growth. Then the buyout offer from John Malone put a cap on Sirius XM shares. The price target at the upgrade went to $4.50.

On Friday the reinstated Buy rating at Merrill Lynch was up to $5, based on growth expectations ahead. That is among the more robust calls out there, although the consensus price target is now listed as $4.41 if you average out the analyst calls.

Sirius XM shares were up 0.6% at $3.46 in early Monday trading, versus a 52-week range of $2.95 to $4.18. As a reminder, the buyout proposal was at roughly $3.68 per share in conversions of Liberty Media shares.

It is interesting that Sirius XM shares were at $3.37 before the deal was called off and popped to $3.44 on the news. Meanwhile, Liberty Media shares rose to $135 from $126 on the news.

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