Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Insider Sells $7,338,734.30 in Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Amy Girdwood sold 262,285 Warner Bros. Discovery shares for approximately $7.34 million at an average price of $27.98, reducing her direct ownership by 32.72% to 539,374 shares.
• Stock and earnings: WBD shares rose to $28.20, near their 52-week high of $30.00. The company beat quarterly EPS expectations ($0.06 versus an estimated loss of $0.14), but revenue fell 11.2% year over year to $8.72 billion.
• Analyst outlook: Institutional investors own about 59.95% of WBD, while analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $27.69.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD - Get Free Report) insider Amy Girdwood sold 262,285 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.98, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 32.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

WBD stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Thursday, reaching $28.20. The company had a trading volume of 32,192,189 shares, compared to its average volume of 22,604,645. The company has a market cap of $70.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.20 and a beta of 1.57. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.56 and a twelve month high of $30.00. 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 simple moving average of $27.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.24.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.20. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative net margin of 8.77% and a negative return on equity of 8.91%. The business had revenue of $8.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. Warner Bros. Discovery's revenue for the quarter was down 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -1.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Warner Bros. Discovery

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions 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 valued at $2,574,865,000 after buying an additional 92,996,028 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 stake in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery during the 4th quarter worth about $1,123,807,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position 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 valued at $791,476,000 after acquiring an additional 1,254,813 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position 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 valued at $458,891,000 after acquiring an additional 876,869 shares during the period. 59.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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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