Warren Buffett walks 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 once 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 roughly 2.3 million shares for about $54 million in separate transactions Thursday through Monday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday evening. Berkshire now owns 35.4% of SiriusXM.
Berkshire first bought Liberty Media’s trackers in 2016 and started piling into SiriusXM’s tracking stocks in the beginning of 2024 in a likely merger arbitrage play. Billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media completed its deal in early September to combine 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 team 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 investing lieutenants, either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Berkshire also purchased about five million shares in December.
SiriusXM had a rough 2024 with shares down a whopping 58% as the company grappled with subscriber losses and unfavorable demographic shifts. It is not a favored stock on Wall Street. Out of the 16 analysts covering Siri, only three gave it a buy rating, according to FactSet.
The stock is up about 5% in the new year.
