SIRI Sirius XM Holdings Inc

By Joshua Jamerson 

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. reported its profit slipped 6% in the fourth quarter on higher expenses, driven in part by increased investments.

Jim Meyer, chief executive of Sirius XM, said the company is investing in new marketing capabilities, its connected vehicle business, new satellites, a next generation wideband chipset and exclusive content that should drive future results.

Sirius XM recently said it had ended 2015 with 29.6 million subscribers, or 2.3 million more than 2014, topping its projection of 2 million new subscribers. For 2016, Sirius XM previously said it expects to add about 1.4 million subscribers. That would give the company a total of about 31 million subscribers.

Monthly churn, or the rate at which subscribers left, rose to 1.9% in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from 1.8% a year ago.

Overall, Sirius XM's profit fell to $134.6 million from $143.1 million. On a per-share basis, earnings were flat at 3 cents a share, helped in part by the company's stock-repurchase program, which lowered Sirius XM's number of diluted shares outstanding by about 7.5% from a year ago.

Revenue grew 10% to $1.2 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast 3 cents a share in earnings on $1.2 billion in revenue.

The company backed its previously-issued revenue forecast of $4.9 billion for 2016.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2016 08:10 ET (13:10 GMT)

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