Sirius XM Q4 Profit More Than Doubles, Results Beat View; Backs Outlook

(RTTNews) - Satellite radio service Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (SIRI) on Thursday reported a profit for the fourth quarter that more than doubled from last year on higher revenues and subscriber additions. The results for the quarter beat analysts' estimates. Looking ahead, the company affirmed its revenue outlook for fiscal 2015.

New York-based Sirius' fourth-quarter net income rose to $143.12 million or $0.03 per share from $65.20 million or $0.01 per share in the same period last year.

On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.02 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sirius' total revenue for the quarter grew 9 percent $1.09 billion from $1.00 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts were looking for revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter.

Subscriber revenue for the quarter increased 8 percent to $922.19 million, advertising revenue rose 10 percent to $27.97 million and equipment revenue grew 15 percent to $29.34 million.

Operating expenses increased 6 percent to $797.30 million from $754.72 million last year.

Sirius reported net subscriber additions in the fourth quarter of 576,689, marking the largest fourth-quarter increase since 2007. Self-pay net subscriber additions in the quarter were 508,032, up from 411,484 in the year-ago period.

The company ended the quarter with 27.31 million subscribers, up from 25.56 million subscribers a year ago.

ARPU for the quarter rose 1.4 percent to $12.49, while average self-pay monthly churn edged down to 1.8 percent from 1.9 percent in the year-ago period.

For fiscal 2014, SiriusXM's net income rose to $493.24 million or $0.08 per share from $376.79 million or $0.06 per share in the prior year. Revenue for the year grew 10 percent to $4.18 billion from $3.80 billion in the previous year.

Street expected the company to earn $0.08 per share for the year on revenues of $4.17 billion.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2015, SiriusXM affirmed its outlook for revenues of about $4.4 billion, and net subscriber additions of about 1.2 million. Analysts expect full-year revenues of $4.48 billion.

SIRI closed Wednesday's trading at $3.61. In Thursday's pre-market activity, the stock is up $0.04 or 1.11 percent to $3.65.