Benzinga | Oct 28, 2021 02:49PM EDT

Subscriber Addons Drive Sirius XM's 9% Revenue Growth In Q3, Raises FY21 Outlook

* Sirius XM Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: SIRI) reported third-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 9% year-on-year to $2.2 billion, beating the consensus of $2.17 billion.

* By adding a record 616,000 net new SiriusXM self-pay subscribers in Q3, Sirius attained the prior full-year guidance of 1.1 million net additions in nine months.

* Sirius XM raised the FY21 outlook and expected to add over 1.1 million new self-pay SiriusXM subscribers in 2021.

* During Q3, Sirius XM saw continued low monthly churn, outstanding ARPU performance in the SiriusXM business, and made significant progress driving advertising growth at Pandora.

* SiriusXM segment revenue grew 5% Y/Y to $1.66 billion as ARPU rose 5% to $14.84 and self-pay subscribers improved 5%. The gross margin expanded 100 basis points to 61%.

* Pandora segment advertising revenue increased 32% Y/Y to $404 million, boosted by solid monetization and Stitcher acquisition. The gross margin of 37% was in line with the year-ago period.

* Subscriber revenue expanded 4.5% Y/Y to $1.7 billion. Advertising revenue increased 30.7% Y/Y to $451million.

* The EPS of $0.10 beat the consensus of $0.07.

* Sirius generated $636 million in operating cash flow and held $1.1 billion in cash and equivalents.

* Outlook: Sirius raised FY21 revenue outlook from $8.55 billion to $8.65 billion, above the analyst consensus of $8.59 billion. It increased the adjusted EBITDA outlook from $2.675 billion to $2.75 billion and raised the free cash flow guidance from $1.7 billion to over $1.8 billion.

* Price action: SIRI shares traded higher by 1.85% at $6.07 on the last check Thursday.