Sirius XM Raises 2012 Performance Targets Following Strong Q2 Results

David Lieberman
·1 min read

Shares are up in pre-market trading even though the satellite radio company had indicated last month that it would have good news about its Q2 results. Helped by a $3B income tax benefit, the company reported net income of $3.1B, up from $173.3M in the period last year, on revenues of $837.5M, +12.5%. Analysts had expected revenues of $834.4M. But they may be more impressed by Sirius XM’s revised guidance for this year. It now projects revenues of about $3.4B, up from the $3.3B forecast it gave in May, with net subscriber growth of 1.6M, up from 1.5M. Sirius XM ended Q2 with 22.9M subscribers +9% vs last year. Out of this group, 18.7M were paying subs, +8.7%. That’s higher than some analysts had forecast. The company says that the strengthening auto sales contributed to its results. Most new customers come from the ranks of car buyers whose vehicles come with Sirius XM radios already installed. While investors will like the results, they’ll be just as interested in hearing the latest about the efforts of Liberty Media — the company’s biggest shareholder — to take control. There were no mention of that in the Q2 report. “We intend to provide more innovative ways for our subscribers to access our best-in-class content, and we believe this focus on satisfying subscribers will also satisfy our shareholders,” CEO Mel Karmazin says.

Related: Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin Hints He Might Be Willing To Work For John Malone

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