Buying Stock in the World's Most Misunderstood Company

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Sirius XM's (SIRI) Howard Stern has always labeled himself "misunderstood."

The misunderstood bit still comes up on his show from time to time, though not as much now as in the old days. It provided a major theme for his movie, Private Parts. I get a bigger kick out of the way people misunderstand Stern when he says he is misunderstood than I do the bit itself. In fact, "bit" is probably the wrong word. Stern speaks genuinely about being misunderstood.

Folks who misunderstand Stern either do not have the intellectual capacity or refuse to go beyond the most obvious aspects of what he does.

The bombast, bravado, spectacle and showmanship is not an act, it's real. Howard Stern dominates because he has an edge over his competitors.

The most maniacal investors in the company Stern works for, Sirius XM, think the company (and stock) they love is just as misunderstood. In their imaginations they create a freaky us-versus-them scenario. It's delusion at its best. The mind can do crazy things to people, even without foreign substances.

Sirius XM permabulls argue their company has an edge. The most ardent contend Sirius XM has no competition, simply because it is the only company that delivers radio via satellite. This, of course, is patently absurd. The marginally more sane bulls contend that satellite delivery of everything ranging from radio to coffee is the future. If you believe this you're either older than dirt, not taking the papers or both.

In reality, it's incredibly difficult to have a true edge in the relatively overcrowded audio entertainment sector. If any company has one -- and is as misunderstood as Stern -- it's Pandora (P).

To get your head around this edge you have to take what most analysts say about the company with a grain of salt. Almost to a person they lack the most fundamental understanding of what Pandora does, why it's successful and why its stock has room to soar to stratospheric heights. They do not realize the where, why and how of the real opportunity investors should focus on.

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