Sirius (SIRI), Liberty Capital (LCAPA) Maintain Ratings from Wunderlich

Wunderlich Securities’ analyst Matthew Harrigan issued research reports today on Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) and Liberty Capital (NASDAQ:LCAPA), whereby he maintains his "Buy" rating on both companies.

Harrigan said about competition for Sirius:

"Pandora is forcing more attention on competition within the vehicle, with an emerging consensus that it is SIRI’s content, convenience, and $80K+ income demo that relegates Pandora to more of a complementary position rather than the hard economics of wireless broadband audio streaming.

"The point here is not that individual OEM initiatives such as Ford Synch are satellite radio killers but that flux in conversion ratio has to be anticipated — even if SAAR growth and the used market opportunity should offset much of the decline."

Concerning the impact of Sirius on Liberty Capital, which has a 40 percent stake in the copany, Harrison noted he doesn't see any major moves coming from Liberty Capital towards Sirius in the near term.

Rather than increasing its stake or making a full tender offer for Sirius, Harrison said he thinks Liberty will purchase back its own discounted shares. “We expect Liberty to instead continue to focus on acquiring discounted LCAPA shares,” Harrigan concluded.

Sirius was trading at $1.79, up $0.021 or 1.19 percent, as of 2:48 PM EST. Liberty Capital was trading at $73.20, up $0.75, or 1.04 percent.