Warner Bros. Discovery probably won’t see a transformative M&A deal this year — and given negative trends in its TV and streaming businesses, Wells Fargo analysts issued a downgrade on the media conglomerate’s stock. Wells Fargo on Monday downgraded its rating on WBD stock from Equal Weight from Overweight and trimmed its price target from $16 to $12 per share. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery were trading down 2.4% Monday, at about $10.36/share.
Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall resumed coverage of Gray Television, giving the broadcaster a positive “overweight” rating. Cahall, in a note Monday, set a target price of $26 per share for Gray, which closed last week at $20.16. After a series of acquisitions, Gray is now a large-scale broadcast player, Cahall said.
Citing “a renewed focus on measurement” in the wake of Google’s decision to abandon “identifier” tracking and ad targeting, a major equities research firm has upgraded Nielsen shares from a “market perform” to “outperform” — a Wall Street rating it hasn’t had in more than two years.
UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded his rating on the stock of the Walt Disney Co. from “neutral” to “buy” in a Friday report, lauding the Hollywood giant’s streaming success and arguing its theme parks would benefit from the reopening of the economy after the coronavirus pandemic. He also boosted his stock price target from $155 to $200.
