Warren Buffett hoof its the floor and meets with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2024.
David A. Grogan
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway if ever again scooped up shares of Sirius XM, boosting its stake in the satellite radio company to more than 35%.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate purchased primitively 2.3 million shares for about $54 million in separate transactions Thursday through Monday, according to a alphabetizing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday evening. Berkshire now owns 35.4% of SiriusXM.
Berkshire first gain Liberty Media’s trackers in 2016 and started piling into SiriusXM’s tracking stocks in the beginning of 2024 in a plausible merger arbitrage play. Billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media completed its deal in early September to merge its tracking stocks with the rest of the radio company, as part of the reshuffling of his sprawling media empire. There was also a split-off of the MLB’s Atlanta Braves baseball group into a separate, publicly traded company, which Berkshire also owns shares in.
SiriusXM
Buffett has yet to mention the Sirius bet publicly, and it is not clear if the 94-year-old investor was behind it or if it is the work of his spending lieutenants, either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Berkshire also purchased about five million shares in December.
SiriusXM had a mark out 2024 with shares down a whopping 58% as the company grappled with subscriber losses and unfavorable demographic veers. It is not a favored stock on Wall Street. Out of the 16 analysts covering Siri, only three gave it a buy rating, contract to FactSet.
The stock is up about 5% in the new year.