Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Sell” Rating Reaffirmed at Argus

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Argus in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Huber Research raised Warner Bros. Discovery from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a report on Thursday, September 17th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Freedom Capital raised shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Warner Bros. Discovery from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.34.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery stock opened at $30.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $77.58 billion, a PE ratio of -24.33 and a beta of 1.57. Warner Bros. Discovery has a 12 month low of $17.08 and a 12 month high of $30.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.33.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.20. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 8.91% and a negative net margin of 8.77%.The firm had revenue of $8.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Warner Bros. Discovery will post -1.08 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Bros. Discovery news, Director Kenneth Lowe sold 200,000 shares of Warner Bros. Discovery stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.23, for a total value of $5,646,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 590,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,658,748.84. The trade was a 25.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David Zaslav sold 773,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.01, for a total transaction of $21,656,575.73. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,807,934 shares in the company, valued at $190,690,231.34. This trade represents a 10.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 2,782,149 shares of company stock valued at $77,455,972 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 21.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,616,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,301,000 after acquiring an additional 2,980,900 shares during the period. Empyrean Capital Partners LP increased its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 29.1% during the first quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP now owns 2,583,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,929,000 after acquiring an additional 583,000 shares during the period. Ally Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Warner Bros. Discovery in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,482,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,839,154 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,963,000 after purchasing an additional 91,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westport Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Warner Bros. Discovery in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,861,000. 59.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc is a global media and entertainment company that creates, distributes and licenses television, film and digital content. Its portfolio includes Warner Bros. film and television studios, HBO and Max, CNN, Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, TNT Sports and other well-known entertainment, news, lifestyle and sports brands.

The company serves audiences through streaming platforms, cable and broadcast networks, theatrical releases, consumer products and content licensing.