As it posted record financial results for Q1, SiriusXM Radio raised its subscriber guidance for 2012. However, the satellite radio company left its revenue and cash flow guidance in place…at least for now.
Q1 revenues were a record $805 million, up 11% from a year ago. But profits grew even more, with net income up 38% to $108 million. Adjusted EBITDA was nearly double that, up 15% to $208 million.
Self-pay subscriber additions improved by 148% from a year earlier to 299,348. That took the subscriber base to an all-time high of 22.3 million.
“SiriusXM is starting the year with tremendous operational momentum. We grew subscribers faster than any first quarter since our 2008 merger of Sirius and XM, and we improved our self-pay monthly churn rate to 1.9% despite implementing a price increase at the beginning of the year. Rising auto sales and our strong execution should enable us to exceed our prior 2012 subscriber growth guidance of 1.3 million, which today we are raising to 1.5 million,” said CEOMel Karmazin.
For the first time ever in Q1 the satellite radio company generated positive free cash flow. The FCF figure for Q1 of 2012 was $15 million, compared to negative FCF of $17 million in Q1 of 2011.
SiriusXM reiterated its full year guidance that revenue will be approximately $3.3 billion, producing adjusted EBITDA of about $875 million and FCF of approximately $700 million.
RBR-TVBR observation: Given the increase in subscriber projections, Wall Street will no doubt view the financial guidance as conservative. But then, Mel likes to beat guidance and expectations.
