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.
Core spot spending will remain flat in the third quarter, according to the latest from Wells Fargo Securities, and the reason is not clear. The good news is political spending will start pouring in in the quarter with Nexstar and Sinclair the chief beneficiaries among the pure-play station groups.
Wells Fargo Securities media expert Marci Ryvicker says in the wake of the station acquisitions the group has made in the last year, “we think Street estimates are too low on just about every metric.”
Ryvicker: Political Rules More Bad Than Good
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker says that the new political ad requirements for FCC’s TV stations “will not only create a time-wasting headache for station groups, but we believe it could also result in downward pressure on ad rates in general.”
Wells Fargo Securities analyst Marci Ryvicker has officially upgraded the television sector to “overweight” (buy) from “market weight” (neutral). She also upgraded Sinclair Broadcast Group to “outperform” ahead of the company’s 4Q earnings report this morning.
