Sirius XM Holdings Boosts Guidance as Subscribers Grow

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. on Tuesday boosted its revenue and subscriber guidance for the year on Tuesday after new subscriber additions surged 46% in the second quarter.

For the year, Sirius now expects net subscriber additions of 1.8 million, up from its previous guidance of 1.4 million, and revenue of $4.5 billion, up from its previous guidance of $4.47 billion.

Shares of the company gained 3.1% in premarket trading.

During the quarter ended June 30, Sirius XM added a net 692,000 new subscribers, compared to net additions of 475,000 a year ago.

It had 28.4 million total subscribers at the end of the period, up from 26.3 million a year ago.

Monthly churn, or the rate at which subscribers left, edged down to 1.6% from 1.8% a year ago. Sirius said the rate was its best since its 2008 merger with XM.

Overall, the company posted a profit of $102.8 million, down from $120 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were flat at 2 cents a share.

Sirius in June agreed to settle a case with major record labels over oldies music the company has aired.

Excluding the $108 million pretax settlement, per-share earnings would have been 3 cents.

Revenue grew 8.5% to $1.12 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of three cents and revenue of $1.12 billion.

Subscriber revenue grew 7% to $940.1 million, while advertising revenue increased 13% to $28.8 million.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail]

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