Yesterday, Banc of America's satellite analyst Jonathan Jacoby issued a cautionary statement on Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI), stating that there was a weakening of Sirius compared to 2005 holiday sales. Jacoby also noted manufacturing issues would be important this year and that channel checks indicate a weaker environment than 2005. He maintained a Neutral rating on SIRI and maintained a Buy on XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XMSR).
If you will recall, just yesterday Jim Cramer hogwashed this and said it was too soon to make that call even if it was true. This morning , however, we were sent an alert that Pacific Crest has made some similar comments to Jacoby's on Sirius (SIRI). Pacific Crest also has said that the initial trends are looking better for XM Satellite (XMSR), which also mirrors the Banc of America comments.
This is a boutique research call so it may not get much coverage today, but it could be the start of some commenting on the potential for new subscribers for the dominant holiday quarter.
It should be noted that Stifel Nicolaus put odds at 75% yesterday for a merger between XM & Sirius within 18 months. If we get anything more solid out of the report or on other issues we'll follow-up on it. The stock is down 1/2% on this pre-market, but investors should recall that this is only a $0.02 move to the downside since investors aren't rifling the shares of SIRI on "cautionary comments" if there is no outright downgrade.
With such a large number of analysts covering the name you will probably get quite a bit research either confirming this theory or refuting it in the coming days.
Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.