Robert Pittman Buys 16,349 Shares of iHeartMedia (NASDAQ:IHRT) Stock

iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) CEO Robert Pittman purchased 16,349 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $2.97 per share, with a total value of $48,556.53. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,231,286 shares in the company, valued at $18,506,919.42. This represents a 0.26% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

iHeartMedia Trading Up 2.0%

iHeartMedia stock opened at $3.09 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $463.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 1.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $3.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.43. iHeartMedia, Inc. has a 1-year low of $0.95 and a 1-year high of $5.44.

iHeartMedia (NASDAQ:IHRT) last posted its 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). iHeartMedia had a negative return on equity of 1.63% and a negative net margin of 12.24%.The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that iHeartMedia, Inc. will post -0.13 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on IHRT shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on iHeartMedia from $3.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of iHeartMedia in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered iHeartMedia from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $4.00 to $3.50 in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, iHeartMedia has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $4.25.

Institutional Trading of iHeartMedia

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IHRT. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of iHeartMedia by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,307,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,815,000 after purchasing an additional 85,957 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of iHeartMedia by 67.7% in the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 8,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 3,378 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in iHeartMedia by 42.8% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 18,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 5,591 shares during the period. Melqart Asset Management UK Ltd purchased a new stake in iHeartMedia during the fourth quarter worth about $2,199,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its holdings in iHeartMedia by 513.5% during the fourth quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 229,839 shares of the company’s stock worth $956,000 after buying an additional 192,378 shares during the last quarter. 93.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.