iHeartMedia (NASDAQ:IHRT) Shares Down 5% – What’s Next?

Shares of iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) fell 5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $3.74 and last traded at $3.7350. 91,379 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 709,035 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.93.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on IHRT. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded iHeartMedia from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $4.00 to $3.50 in a report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of iHeartMedia in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $4.25.

iHeartMedia Trading Down 5.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $562.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 37.30 and a beta of 1.64. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $3.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.53.

iHeartMedia (NASDAQ:IHRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. iHeartMedia had a negative return on equity of 1.63% and a negative net margin of 12.24%. As a group, research analysts forecast that iHeartMedia, Inc. will post -0.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other iHeartMedia news, CEO Robert W. Pittman bought 32,468 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $3.25 per share, with a total value of $105,521.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,214,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,198,545.25. This trade represents a 0.53% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 8.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On iHeartMedia

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IHRT. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of iHeartMedia by 99.8% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,214,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,105,976 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of iHeartMedia by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,872,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,739,000 after purchasing an additional 532,414 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of iHeartMedia in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $186,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of iHeartMedia by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,822,306 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,968,000 after purchasing an additional 186,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of iHeartMedia by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 168,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 11,101 shares in the last quarter. 93.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

iHeartMedia Company Profile

iHeartMedia, Inc (NASDAQ: IHRT) is a leading media and entertainment company specializing in radio broadcasting, digital streaming and live events. The company operates more than 860 full-power AM and FM radio stations across the United States, delivering music, news, sports and talk programming to local markets. Through its flagship digital platform, iHeartRadio, the company provides listeners with free and subscription-based access to thousands of live radio stations, curated music playlists and on-demand podcasts.

Originally founded in 1972 as Clear Channel Communications, the business rebranded to iHeartMedia in 2014 to reflect the growing importance of its digital and event-driven offerings.