Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. $WBD Shares Acquired by Pinnacle Associates Ltd.

Key Points

• Pinnacle Associates increased its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 17% in Q3, buying an additional 138,018 shares to hold 948,386 shares valued at about $18.52 million.
• Large insider selling this week included CEO David Zaslav offloading ~4.0M shares for ~$113.2M; insiders sold about 7.78M shares worth ~$219.4M over the last quarter, a potential near-term negative for sentiment.
• Deal and analyst backdrop: Paramount/Skydance agreed to buy WBD assets (with Netflix exiting the bidding), while analysts maintain a consensus Hold rating and an average price target of $25.99 after WBD’s recent EPS miss and revenue decline.

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD - Free Report) by 17.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 948,386 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 138,018 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.'s holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery were worth $18,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WBD. Concord Wealth Partners grew its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 49.9% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 1,321 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 152.1% in the third quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,404 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Grove Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 66.5% in the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 1,690 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares during the period. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 1,242.2% during the 3rd quarter. Crews Bank & Trust now owns 1,718 shares of the company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,590 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.95% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBD has been the subject of a number of research reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Barrington Research lowered Warner Bros. Discovery from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Moffett Nathanson cut Warner Bros. Discovery from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $31.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings raised Warner Bros. Discovery from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Warner Bros. Discovery from $23.50 to $27.75 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Warner Bros. Discovery presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $25.99.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

Shares of WBD stock opened at $27.93 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company's fifty day moving average price is $28.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 96.31 and a beta of 1.60. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a 12 month low of $7.52 and a 12 month high of $30.00.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.19). Warner Bros. Discovery had a net margin of 1.95% and a return on equity of 1.98%. The business had revenue of $9.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.20) earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Warner Bros. Discovery news, CEO David Zaslav sold 4,004,149 shares of Warner Bros. Discovery stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total transaction of $113,157,250.74. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 7,200,627 shares in the company, valued at $203,489,719.02. The trade was a 35.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce Campbell sold 55,118 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.00, for a total value of $1,543,304.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 7,777,159 shares of company stock worth $219,427,326 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

Key Warner Bros. Discovery News

Here are the key news stories impacting Warner Bros. Discovery this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Paramount/Skydance agreed to buy WBD assets in a deal that could deliver a takeover premium and simplify WBD’s portfolio — this is the primary bullish catalyst for shareholders. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Buyer leadership (David Ellison/Paramount/Skydance) publicly pledges to keep CNN independent, reducing regulatory and integration risk that might otherwise erode deal value. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and M&A presentations are framing the transaction as a strategic reset that could unlock value for WBD shareholders (materials outline bidder dynamics and potential synergies). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Netflix has stepped back from the WBD bidding war and is refocusing on core streaming strategy — removes one potential suitor but also leaves bidders like Paramount to set the deal terms. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage notes Netflix received cash from its failed WBD bid and may redeploy capital elsewhere; this is relevant to the competitive landscape but not directly to WBD’s valuation. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Third-party market activity (reports of investors buying Netflix bonds and other opportunistic moves) reflects investor jockeying around the media deal but is peripheral to WBD’s fundamentals. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large, coordinated insider selling reported this week (CEO David Zaslav sold ~4.0M shares; CFO and other senior execs also sold large blocks) — big disposals can pressure sentiment and suggest insiders are taking liquidity or reducing exposure ahead of/after deal activity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Additional insider sales (e.g., Amy Girdwood) and multiple large Form 4s amplify the selling signal and may trigger short-term profit-taking. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst pressure: Moffett Nathanson downgraded WBD to neutral (maintains $31 target) and Argus published a pessimistic forecast — bearish notes can cap the stock’s near-term upside and encourage selling. Read More. • Read More.

Warner Bros. Discovery Profile

Warner Bros. Discovery NASDAQ: WBD is a global media and entertainment company formed when WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc combined their businesses in 2022. Headquartered in New York City, the company assembles a broad portfolio of film and television production, linear and cable networks, streaming services and consumer distribution operations. Its assets span well-known studio brands, premium scripted and unscripted programming, news and factual entertainment, and licensed franchise properties.

The company's core activities include film and television production and distribution through units such as Warner Bros.

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