Squarepoint Ops LLC Purchases 726,437 Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. $WBD

Key Points

• Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its Warner Bros. Discovery stake by 19.8% in the second quarter, purchasing 726,437 shares and bringing its holdings to 4.4 million shares valued at approximately $117.4 million.
• Institutional investors own nearly 60% of WBD’s outstanding stock, with major additions from California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Geode Capital Management, Norges Bank and Morgan Stanley.
• WBD beat quarterly EPS expectations but missed revenue estimates, with revenue falling 11.2% year over year. Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating and a $27.69 price target, while insiders have sold more than 2.29 million shares over the past 90 days.

Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD - Free Report) by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,401,898 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 726,437 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC owned approximately 0.18% of Warner Bros. Discovery worth $117,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBD. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 2,593.6% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 96,581,582 shares of the company's stock worth $2,574,865,000 after buying an additional 92,996,028 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 66,597,575 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,912,634,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,346 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,123,807,000. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 27,462,742 shares of the company's stock worth $791,476,000 after purchasing an additional 1,254,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,496,725 shares of the company's stock worth $458,891,000 after purchasing an additional 876,869 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.95% of the company's stock.

Warner Bros. Discovery Trading Down 0.5%

WBD opened at $28.12 on Wednesday. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.00 and a 1-year high of $30.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.60 billion, a PE ratio of -22.14 and a beta of 1.57. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.25.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David Zaslav sold 194,999 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.02, for a total transaction of $5,463,871.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 6,807,934 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,758,310.68. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Gerhard Zeiler sold 591,038 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.05, for a total transaction of $15,987,577.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 537,436 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,537,643.80. This represents a 52.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,290,749 shares of company stock valued at $63,652,233 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on WBD. 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 raised 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 issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Warner Bros. Discovery currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $27.69.

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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