Maven Securities LTD Acquires 100,307 Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. $WBD

Key Points

• Maven Securities increased its Warner Bros. Discovery stake by 59.3% in the second quarter, purchasing 100,307 additional shares and bringing its total holdings to 269,357 shares valued at approximately $7.18 million.
• Institutional investors own 59.95% of WBD, while insiders sold approximately 2.29 million shares worth $63.65 million over the past 90 days.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed, with a consensus “Hold” rating and a $27.69 price target. WBD recently traded at $28.12 after reporting better-than-expected quarterly EPS but an 11.2% year-over-year revenue decline.

Maven Securities LTD grew its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD - Free Report) by 59.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 269,357 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 100,307 shares during the period. Maven Securities LTD's holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery were worth $7,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 21.9% during the 1st 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. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 130.8% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 1,008,638 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,069,000 after purchasing an additional 571,612 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 304.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 68,950 shares of the company's stock valued at $729,000 after purchasing an additional 51,920 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 66,597,575 shares of the company's stock worth $1,912,634,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028,346 shares during the period. Finally, Empyrean Capital Partners LP lifted 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 purchasing an additional 583,000 shares during the period. 59.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Warner Bros. Discovery

In related news, Director Fazal Merchant sold 71,539 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.75, for a total transaction of $1,985,207.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 33,067 shares in the company, valued at $917,609.25. This represents a 68.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kenneth Lowe sold 200,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.35, for a total transaction of $5,670,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 790,108 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,399,561.80. This represents a 20.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,290,749 shares of company stock worth $63,652,233 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on WBD shares. Freedom Capital raised shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research raised shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Huber Research upgraded shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners cut shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $27.69.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WBD opened at $28.12 on Wednesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $27.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.60 billion, a PE ratio of -22.14 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.00 and a twelve month high of $30.00.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $8.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 business's quarterly revenue was down 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Warner Bros. Discovery

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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