As previously reported, Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan initiated Sirius XM (SIRI) with a Hold rating. Sirius XM's core U.S. satellite radio business includes over 34M customers and the recent addition of Pandora lets the company reach more than 100M people with its audio products, said Harrigan, who sees it most important growth avenue being expansion into smart speakers and smart phones with improved apps and additional content. He believes the stock is fairly valued and views Liberty Sirius XM (LSXMA) shares as "a de facto pure play" on Sirius XM that trade at an "excessive" 29% discount. Harrigan initiated coverage of Liberty SiriusXM with a Buy rating and $60 price target this morning.

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.