I wrote about the "comfortable calm" in shares of Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) two weeks ago. The company's only gotten quieter since.
Its trading range has tightened even further, and the historically chatty satellite radio company has held back on cranking out press releases. A year ago, the company issued a press release signaling the start of the 2009 baseball season as a way to promote its XM play-by-play coverage. There was no such missive last week, heading into Sunday's season opener.
I'm not complaining. Sirius XM is letting its actions speak louder than words. When it reports its quarterly results next month, analysts expect the satellite radio giant to deliver its third consecutive quarter of breakeven results. Couple the meager profitability with growing cash flow, and Sirius XM is no longer a popular pick in corporate death pools.
After bouncing back with back-to-back quarters of net subscriber growth, Sirius XM expects to add another 500,000 net new listeners to its rolls this year.
The same company that couldn't catch a break as more automakers added music-gobbling hard drives and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPod jacks is now even seeing the car market roll its way. Ford (NYSE: F) and even the slammed Toyota (NYSE: TM) are posting robust sales, and nearly half of all cars with factory-installed receivers lead to paying subscribers.
Perhaps the company's silence is intentional. Sirius XM has scheduled a meeting later this month with NASDAQ OMX Group (Nasdaq: NDAQ) to discuss listing compliance, roughly a week before it has historically posted its first-quarter results. It may very well release encouraging metrics before the meeting, but it appears to be heading to its April 29 showdown with rolled-up sleeves.
The company will likely argue that it deserves to remain a Nasdaq-listed company -- despite its inability to consistently trade above the $1 minimum price requirement -- based on its market cap, enterprise value, and improving fundamentals.
Sirius XM won't have to twist the exchange's arm too hard, since it remains one of Nasdaq's most actively traded stocks.
Either way, the sleepy days at Sirius XM will end with a bang later this month, since Nasdaq's actions will either validate Sirius XM, or force it into a reverse split. No snooze bar lasts forever.
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