Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Earns “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at Benchmark in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark’s price target points to a potential upside of 63.64% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $16.00 price objective on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $14.00 price target on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $9.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Warner Bros. Discovery from $9.50 to $10.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Warner Bros. Discovery has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.76.

Warner Bros. Discovery Trading Up 4.8 %

NASDAQ:WBD opened at $11.00 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Warner Bros. Discovery has a 1 year low of $6.64 and a 1 year high of $12.70. The company has a market cap of $26.98 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.40, a P/E/G ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $10.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.20.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.30). Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 27.56% and a negative net margin of 28.34%. The business had revenue of $10.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.16 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Warner Bros. Discovery will post -4.33 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Savalle Sims sold 169,436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.36, for a total value of $2,094,228.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 599,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,407,558.12. This trade represents a 22.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Warner Bros. Discovery

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WBD. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Warner Bros. Discovery in the fourth quarter worth about $362,210,000. Contrarius Group Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $168,930,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 478.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,278,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,925,000 after purchasing an additional 11,810,191 shares during the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 36.6% during the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 23,801,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,577,000 after purchasing an additional 6,381,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sachem Head Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,847,000. 59.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Bros. Discovery Company Profile

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc operates as a media and entertainment company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Studios, Network, and DTC. The Studios segment produces and releases feature films for initial exhibition in theaters; produces and licenses television programs to its networks and third parties and direct-to-consumer services; distributes films and television programs to various third parties and internal television; and offers streaming services and distribution through the home entertainment market, themed experience licensing, and interactive gaming.