BMO Capital analyst Daniel Salmon downgraded Pandora (P) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered his price target to $10 from $13 after last week's announcement of a takeover by SiriusXM (SIRI). Given the all-stock deal, the analyst notes that Pandora performance will be tied to that of SiriusXM in the very near term, while also assigning about a 15% probability of a competitive bid emerging during the go-shop period, which lasts until October 24th. In his bear case, to which Salmon assigns about a 5% probability, the deal for Pandora falls through because of regulatory hurdles or shareholder objection.

Citi upgraded Sirius XM (SIRI) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $3.30, down from $4.10. Over the last few months, the net asset value discount between Liberty SiriusXM (LSXMA) and Sirius XM has narrowed from 40% to 2%. To Citi's surprise, this occurred via a decline in Sirius XM's equity without appreciation in Liberty SiriusXM's value. The firm now finds the risk/reward in both securities as relatively balanced. As such, Citi upgraded Sirius XM from Sell to Neutral and downgraded Liberty SiriusXM from Buy to Neutral.

Pivotal Research upgraded Sirius XM (SIRI) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $4.90, down from $5.05. The magnitude of the decline in Sirius XM's valuation has been surprising, exacerbated by a current lack of institutional ownership and the fact most investors owned parent Liberty Sirius XM (LSXMK) to play the narrowing of the net asset value gap rather than as a way to invest in Sirius, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says this has created an attractive investment opportunity, highlighted by the 55% upside to its new target price. It views Sirius as a free cash flow acceleration story.