Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Receives "Equal Weight" Rating from Barclays

Key Points

• Barclays reiterated its “Equal Weight” rating on Warner Bros. Discovery and set a $29 price target, implying approximately 3.31% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed but leans neutral: MarketBeat reports an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.22.
• Warner Bros. Discovery beat quarterly EPS estimates with $0.06 per share, but revenue fell 11.2% year over year to $8.72 billion; insiders also sold about $77.5 million of stock during the last quarter.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "equal weight" rating reiterated by analysts at Barclays in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays's price target would suggest a potential upside of 3.31% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on WBD. Huber Research upgraded shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Zacks Research upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Seaport Research Partners lowered Warner Bros. Discovery from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Warner Bros. Discovery presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $28.22.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Up 0.1%

Warner Bros. Discovery stock opened at $28.07 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $27.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.21. Warner Bros. Discovery has a fifty-two week low of $17.08 and a fifty-two week high of $30.00. The company has a market capitalization of $70.48 billion, a PE ratio of -22.10 and a beta of 1.57.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.20. The business had revenue of $8.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.25 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 8.91% and a negative net margin of 8.77%.The company's revenue was down 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Warner Bros. Discovery will post -1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Warner Bros. Discovery

In related news, Director Anton J. Levy sold 340,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.39, for a total transaction of $9,652,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 618,067 shares in the company, valued at $17,546,922.13. The trade was a 35.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Amy Girdwood sold 262,285 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.98, for a total value of $7,338,734.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 539,374 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,091,684.52. This trade represents a 32.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,782,149 shares of company stock worth $77,455,972. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Warner Bros. Discovery

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 66,597,575 shares of the company's stock worth $1,912,634,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,346 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery during the fourth quarter worth about $1,123,807,000. HBK Investments L P grew its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 15.9% during the second quarter. HBK Investments L P now owns 18,965,932 shares of the company's stock worth $505,632,000 after purchasing an additional 2,604,732 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 21.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,616,949 shares of the company's stock worth $456,301,000 after purchasing an additional 2,980,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 11.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 16,324,591 shares of the company's stock worth $435,214,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640,916 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.95% of the company's stock.

Warner Bros. Discovery Company Profile

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

The company operates streaming services including Max, which features HBO programming, Warner Bros. films, original series and other entertainment content, and discovery+, which focuses on lifestyle, documentary and nonfiction programming.

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