Exceptions among pure-play television operators were Gray and Tribune, as was Comcast/NBC among the networks.
TVN FOCUS ON BUSINESS
TV Stocks Mostly Down At 2017 Midpoint
By the end of the first quarter, most television companies posted a gain in stock value compared to their final 2016 price, but by the end of the second quarter, most had given it back and then some.
Exceptions among pure-play television operators were Gray and Tribune, as was Comcast/NBC among the networks.
Tribune is a special case. It is about to fold into Sinclair for $43.50 a share. It closed the first half up 14.2% at $40.77, was trading at $41.03 as of 10:15 ET on July 12, and has reached a 2017 high of $43.04.
Gray managed an even better gain on a percentage basis, rising 20.8% to $13.70 per share. Despite the good news on overall pricing, Gray followed the general pattern, closing the first quarter at $14.50 before surrendering some of its gains.
Tegna spun-off Cars.com into its own publicly traded company on May 31 and its stock price has since been adjusted to reflect the new value of the company. On May 31, Tegna’s adjusted close price (without Cars.com) was $15.21. On July 17, it closed at $14.51, a decrease of 4.6%.
The networks were just north of flat at the end of the first half with the exception of Comcast/NBCUniversal, which enjoyed a double-digit gain.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Television companies performed somewhat along the lines of the S&P index, which experienced a similar arc in pricing. However, the S&P threaded the needle, avoiding the loss suffered by most television operators, and missing out on the modest gains of three of the networks with an almost flat performance.
The Dow, on the other hand, moved steadily north for a 7.4% gain, suggesting that as a group, television companies are underperforming the market at the year’s halfway point.
|
Close |
Close |
YTD |
||
|
Company |
Symbol |
12/31/2016 |
6/30/2017 |
% chg. |
|
TV Operators |
||||
|
Entravision |
EVC |
$7.00 |
$6.60 |
-5.7% |
|
Gray |
GTN |
$10.85 |
$13.70 |
20.8% |
|
Nexstar |
NXST |
$63.30 |
$59.80 |
-5.5% |
|
Scripps |
SSP |
$19.33 |
$17.81 |
-7.9% |
|
Sinclair |
SBGI |
$33.35 |
$32.90 |
-1.3% |
|
Tegna* |
TGNA |
$21.39 |
$14.41 |
NA* |
|
Tribune |
TRCO |
$34.98 |
$40.77 |
14.2% |
|
Networks |
||||
|
CBS |
CBS |
$63.62 |
$63.78 |
0.3% |
|
Comcast/NBC |
CMSCA |
$34.52 |
$38.92 |
11.3% |
|
Disney/ABC |
DIS |
$104.22 |
$106.25 |
1.9% |
|
Fox |
FOXA |
$28.04 |
$28.34 |
1.1% |
|
TV-Magazines |
||||
|
Meredith |
MDP |
$59.15 |
$59.45 |
0.5% |
|
Indexes |
||||
|
Dow |
$19,762.60 |
$21,349.63 |
7.4% |
|
|
S&P |
$2,238.83 |
$2,243.41 |
0.2% |
*Tegna spun-off Cars.com into its own publicly traded company on May 31 and its stock price has been adjusted to reflect the new value of the company. On May 31, Tegna’s adjusted close price (without Cars.com) was $15.21. On July 17, it closed at $14.51, a decrease of 4.6%.
Editor’s note: This story was changed to reflect the changes in Tegna quotes indicated in the story and chart above.
Comments (2)
Cheryl Thorne says:
July 17, 2017 at 7:16 am
The reason Gray was up because of their Dismal performance last year … lost almost a third of their value . So they followed the S&P .. big deal . Wait until the second qtr #s are released..short the stock !!!
Jayson Siler says:
July 17, 2017 at 9:21 am
Facebook, Amazon and Google are +30% for the same period of time. Hmm…