A close look at the quarterly Form 13F filings by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSA:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B) is always an interesting exercise. There’s always something that catches my eye. In the most recent submission, it’s Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) that jumped out, with Warren Buffett’s company shown owning 172 million shares of SIRI stock.

Except for Buffett’s annual shareholder letter, the company’s 13F is the document I always jump to first for investing ideas and research homework. After all, with thousands of publicly traded equities to choose from, why not let one of the best investors of all time narrow the list down to those worth digging into?

Sirius XM is in many ways a pioneer in the radio business, standing as a disruptive force in what has evolved into a very difficult sector to make money in. The ways in which information is consumed by individuals continue to evolve, and SIRI has worked very hard to stay relevant in this industry via continuously acquiring talent, bolt-on acquisitions that complement existing operations, and corporate partnerships. The most-recent partnership with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) which will allow SiriusXM subscribers to have access to the SIRI platform on the Amazon Echo has investors once again interested in the long-term prospects of SIRI.

Echo Integration Could Be a Big Boost

In the race for home info-tainment system market share, the Echo has jumped to the forefront as the industry leader, and has caught the attention of many investors and analysts seeking to cash in on the next big technology craze.

While artificial intelligence remains in an early stage, the evolution of artificial intelligence, and specifically Amazon’s Echo, as one of the mainstream ways households gather and consume information and entertainment have piqued interest in the ability of SIRI to capitalize on this movement by picking the horse most analysts expect to win the long-term AI race.

The Amazon Echo has already developed partnerships with other key players in the radio space, namely Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), a company which SIRI has grown increasingly interconnected with following its investment of $480 million during the most recent quarter.

While the long-term details of the SIRI-Pandora relationship are not yet known, what is clear is that the Sirius’s most recent integration with the Echo should continue to provide a boost to SIRI’s overall subscriber growth, currently adding approximately 250,000 subscribers a quarter.

With a business model built on subscriber revenue, many analysts believe that integrations with systems outside the more traditional automobile sector may be the catalyst for SIRI to move subscriber growth meaningfully higher.

Improving Long-Term Fundamentals

An investors like Warren Buffett assesses a company like SIRI on its performance over a span of years, so let’s do the same.

I’m going to pay particular attention to how SIRI has been able to leverage its operations and provide value to shareholders, looking at key ratios and margins to get a better picture of how robust the competitive advantage of SIRI is in its current environment.

Over the past five years, SIRI has improved operating margins from 25.6% to 30.4%, with operating profit and net margin increasing in each of the past four years (2012 saw unusually high net income which ended up being higher than revenue due to extraordinary items).

Bottomline on SIRI Stock

The consistent and stable pace of top- and bottom-line growth has allowed the company to issue a very modest dividend with a yield of less than 1%, allowing the company to maintain a low payout ratio of 12.5%, thereby giving the company latitude to continue to buy back shares over time.

The Oracle of Omaha has famously praised companies with modest dividends and share buyback programs, and SIRI fits the mold quite closely.

With Sirius set to release its Q2 2017 earnings next week, investors will be closely assessing subscriber growth numbers related to the most recent Amazon Echo integration. Investors willing to make a long-term bet on SIRI stock as a wager on the company’s ability to capitalize on the AI revolution should pull the trigger before the end of this month.

As of this writing, Chris MacDonald did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.