Sirius XM |
The New York-based company's net income for the first quarter was $78.12 million, up from $41.60 million in the year-ago period. However, on a per-share basis, earnings were flat with the prior-year period at $0.01 on higher number of weighted average shares outstanding.
On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.01 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Total revenues for the quarter grew 9 percent to $723.84 million from $663.78 million in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $736.34 million.
Mel Karmazin, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM said, "SiriusXM's first quarter results have put us on track to attain our full year goals for subscriber, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA growth. Significantly, we are now in a position to raise our free cash flow estimate for the year. Consumers are buying cars again and demand for our product is strong. Were it not for the OEM supply chain uncertainty resulting from the tragedy in Japan, we would be in a position to raise our subscriber guidance today."
Subscriber revenue grew 7 percent to $622.44 million, while advertising revenue, net of agency fees, increased 14 percent to $16.56 million. Equipment revenue increased 11 percent to $15.87 million and other revenue grew 24 percent to $68.98 million.
Net subscriber additions during the quarter more than doubled to 373,064 from 171,441 in the prior year. Ending subscribers as of March 31, 2011 were 20.56 million, up 9 percent from the same period last year.
The company noted that the improvement in subscribers was due to a 19 percent increase in gross subscriber additions, primarily resulting from an increase in U.S. light vehicle sales, new vehicle penetration and returning activations.
Average revenue per subscriber rose to $11.52 from $11.48 a year ago, primarily driven by an increase in sales of premium services. Average self-pay monthly customer churn was 2 percent, in-line with the monthly average of 2 percent in the year-ago period.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2011, Sirius maintained its outlook for revenues of about $3 billion. Analysts anticipate revenues of $3.07 billion for the year.