Wunderlich: Liberty Media Is A Buy, Even After Apple Music Launch

In a report published Tuesday, Wunderlich analyst Matthew Harrigan maintained a Buy rating on

, with a price target of $44. Liberty Media offers a +9 percent NAV discount as a play on the stake of about 58 percent that the company has in Sirius XM Radio, operated by

(rated Hold). Liberty Media's shares could gain from any new deal inked by the company within the audio space, even with a less well capitalized company like

. The high-profile Apple Music launch at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) hosted by

would probably "revive angst over full ecosystem tech competitors," analyst Matthew Harrigan said. The launch is more of a threat to

than it is to Sirius XM. "Apple Music is anchored by a $9.99 monthly streaming service (free 3- month trial) with 30mm songs…Apple Music is predictable effort following $3B Beats deal, although high ambitions are conveyed by surprise availability for Android devices," the report stated. Harrigan commented, "We still feel that Sirius XM remains well differentiated by sports and talk programming, with music much more commoditized, but we would expect other entrants to continue to gradually offer more non-music programming. Sirius XM has to counter by exploiting its strong OEM engineering relationships, global telematics upside, and meshing streaming (and quasi streamed) content with satellite delivery."