Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI) Tops Q3 Revenue, Misses on Earnings

Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) is up over 2.3% this morning, trading at $2.87 on a 52-week range of $1.61 to $2.97. The stock was trading on a day range of just $2.74 to $2.84 yesterday as the markets opened in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The surge came after Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) reported better than expected Q3 results. The company reported third quarter revenue of $867 million, up from $763 million realized the same quarter last year. However, Sirius underperformed the same quarter last year with regard to its earnings after the company posted a third quarter earnings per share of $0.01, down from $0.02 Q3 last year. Analysts were estimating earnings of $0.02 and revenue of $829.6 million.

Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) also reported record subscriber growth. According to the press release, “Self-pay net subscriber additions improved by 2% year-over-year to 371,000, pushing the self-pay subscriber base to an all-time high of 19.0 million subscribers.  The total paid subscriber base rose to a record high 23.4 million subscribers. Strong auto sales helped lift total paid and unpaid trial inventory by approximately 115,000 from the second quarter of 2012 to 6.2 million.”

“Our increased subscriber guidance of approximately 1.8 million net additions shows we remain confident about growth in the fourth quarter,” said Mel Karmazin, Chief Executive Officer of Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI)’s SiriusXM.  “We were pleased to raise our subscriber guidance for the third time this year.”

For the first 10 months of the year, Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) is up over 50.5% and Liberty Media Corp (Capital (NASDAQ:LMCA), the company which recently acquired the popular radio provider, is not far behind. It returned 42.6% in the first 10 months of the year and hit a new 52-week high today of $115.55. Together, the two companies are grossly outpacing their competitors, both large and small. Rival Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) is currently trading at $8.43 on a 52-week range of $7.32 – 15.89, and lost almost 19% in the first 10 months of the year. Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLS), a much smaller rival, is trading at $2.50 on a 52-week range of $2.08 – 3.95 and lost almost 30% from January through October, while Dial Global Inc (NASDAQ:DIAL) recently traded at $2.43 on a 52-week range of $1.95 – 4.77 and has lost over 31% year to date through October 31.