Satellite radio and media company Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) reported Q2 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 1% year on year to $2.16 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.70 per share was 10.8% below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Sirius XM (SIRI) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $2.16 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.14 billion (1% year-on-year growth, 1% beat)
- EPS (GAAP): $0.70 vs analyst expectations of $0.78 (10.8% miss)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $691 million vs analyst estimates of $657.3 million (32% margin, 5.1% beat)
- Operating Margin: 21.9%, up from 17.1% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 27.5%, up from 18.8% in the same quarter last year
- Subscribers: 38.47 million, up 30.24 million year on year
- Market Capitalization: $10.97 billion
Company Overview
Known for its commercial-free music channels, Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) is a broadcasting company that provides satellite radio and online radio services across North America.
Revenue Growth
Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Unfortunately, Sirius XM struggled to consistently increase demand as its $8.60 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This wasn’t a great result and suggests it’s a low quality business.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within consumer discretionary, a stretched historical view may miss a company riding a successful new product or trend. Sirius XM’s recent performance shows its demand remained suppressed as its revenue has declined by 1.7% annually over the last two years. 
This quarter, Sirius XM reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 1% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 1%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. While this projection indicates its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.
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Operating Margin
Operating margin is an important measure of profitability as it shows the portion of revenue left after accounting for all core expenses — everything from the cost of goods sold to advertising and wages. It’s also useful for comparing profitability across companies with different levels of debt and tax rates because it excludes interest and taxes.
Sirius XM’s operating margin has been trending up over the last 12 months, leading to break even profits over the last two years. However, its large expense base and inefficient cost structure mean it still sports inadequate profitability for a consumer discretionary business.
In Q2, Sirius XM generated an operating margin profit margin of 21.9%, up 4.8 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth — for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Sirius XM’s EPS grew at 31.3% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its flat revenue. However, this alone doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its operating margin didn’t improve.
In Q2, Sirius XM reported EPS of $0.70, up from $0.57 in the same quarter last year. Despite growing year on year, this print missed analysts’ estimates, but we care more about long-term EPS growth than short-term movements. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Sirius XM’s full-year EPS to grow 28.5% from $2.54 to $3.26.
Key Takeaways from Sirius XM’s Q2 Results
It was encouraging to see Sirius XM beat analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue narrowly outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EPS missed. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded down 8.7% to $29.76 immediately after reporting.
Sirius XM’s earnings report left more to be desired. Let’s look forward to see if this quarter has created an opportunity to buy the stock. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
