Viacom Company Profile (NASDAQ:VIAB)

Viacom trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "VIAB."

Viacom declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share on Monday, July 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 13th. View Viacom's Dividend History.

Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May, 4th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.03 billion. Viacom had a net margin of 10.94% and a return on equity of 33.25%. Viacom's revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. View Viacom's Earnings History.

Viacom is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Wednesday, August, 2nd 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Viacom.

31 equities research analysts have issued 1 year target prices for Viacom's shares. Their forecasts range from $30.00 to $56.00. On average, they anticipate Viacom's share price to reach $43.92 in the next twelve months. View Analyst Ratings for Viacom.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Viacom stock:

• 1. Rosenblatt Securities analysts commented, "We are initiating coverage of Viacom (VIA/VIAB) with a NEUTRAL rating and a $45 price target. New CEO Bob Bakish, who successfully ran the international division, has brought new energy and a logical strategic plan to the company, but it will be challenging to execute, particularly starting from a highly-leveraged financial position. VIA appears inexpensive on an earnings multiple basis, but in our view consensus estimates are too high as it will be difficult to sustain margins in the media networks business and it will take substantial time and capital to turn around Paramount. Furthermore, the stock is not inexpensive on an EV/EBITDA basis." (4/5/2017)
• 2. Guggenheim analysts commented, "We see a number of additional incremental value creators--international expansion, targeted advertising, film slate improvements, divestiture of non-core assets, and more efficient spending to name a few--but are particularly focused on the opportunity to drive a stronger revenue yield from the robust programming slate. As the charts below highlight (updated from our original analysis on 6/1/16), Viacom is an industry leader in entertainment programming investment and yet lags non-sports peers in monetization, particularly in unscripted advertising. We see substantial opportunity for traditional and enhanced advertising growth if the company can develop programming that resonates with its target audience. At this point, we still view shares as attractively priced for the success potential presented by this opportunity." (3/22/2017)
• 3. FBR & Co analysts commented, "With this note, we are updating Viacom estimates, after the company’s recent F1Q17 earnings report." (2/14/2017)
• 4. Instinet analysts commented, "This morning, Viacom's President and CEO, Bob Bakish, clearly delivered a five-point strategy to energize and improve Viacom's brand and operations. Of course, Mr. Bakish inherits a tough hand, as Viacom's assets have (in the view of many investors) been mismanaged and underutilized for so long. Moreover, as we've argued for some time, brands like MTV and Comedy Central are subject to greater competition and fragmentation given their emphasis on younger, mobile-first audiences. That said, we are encouraged by management's clearly articulated strategy, a new path that in and of itself should incrementally support the stock's valuation multiple. We increase our CY18 target P/E multiple to 11x, which leads to our new Target Price of $45 (up from $40). However, we maintain our rating and await sustained improvements in ratings and affiliate fee recovery for Viacom's 'flagship 6' networks." (2/10/2017)
• 5. Wells Fargo & Co analysts commented, "We don't do this often ' upgrade on a first look at numbers. But, today's results prove to us that the turnaround is real and likely to continue. From a very high level, everything beat ' revenue by 480bps, OI by 1,240bps and EPS by $0.17. We also think that the strategic plan CEO Bakish has put in place makes sense ' and is somewhat similar to what TWX implemented a few years ago (i.e. recall that TWX got rid of the 'silos' that had existed between its various brands, as well as between its domestic and international segments), which seemed to have worked. While the conference call is yet to begin (it's at 8:30 am ET), we don't need to wait. We think today's results & strategic overview are enough to move Street numbers higher and to boost VIAB's severely discounted valuation. While we do NOT believe VIAB warrants the same NTM P/E multiple as its peers, we do think the current 5x discount should narrow. Hence, we upgrade to Outperform from Market Perform, boost our val to $48-50 (12.5x NTM P/E vs. the sector average of 14.5x) from $38-40, and raise our F'17 and F'18 ests.to $4.10 and $4.19 from $3.93 and $4.04, respectively, due to the flow through of today's results." (2/9/2017)

Viacom saw a increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,492,662 shares, an increase of 36.4% from the April 28th total of 10,628,442 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,153,495 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Some companies that are related to Viacom include CBS (CBS), Live Nation Entertainment (LYV), Madison Square Garden Co (MSG), AMC Networks (AMCX), Imax Corp (IMAX), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Marcus Corp (MCS), Global Eagle Entertainment (ENT), Cinedigm Corp (CIDM), Bona Film Group Ltd (BONA), Comcast (CMCSK) and Starz Acquisition LLC (STRZA).

Viacom's stock is owned by a variety of of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc. (5.59%), BlackRock Inc. (5.35%), Wellington Management Group LLP (5.04%), State Street Corp (3.86%), FMR LLC (2.32%) and LSV Asset Management (1.22%). Company insiders that own Viacom stock include Michael D Fricklas and Ronald L Nelson. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Viacom.

Viacom's stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Yacktman Asset Management LP, Renaissance Technologies LLC, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, LSV Asset Management, Parametric Portfolio Associates LLC, Bank of America Corp DE, Morgan Stanley and Ariel Investments LLC. View Insider Buying and Selling for Viacom.

Viacom's stock was bought by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including BlackRock Inc., Wellington Management Group LLP, FMR LLC, Alliancebernstein L.P., Scopus Asset Management L.P., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Stelliam Investment Management LP and TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC. View Insider Buying and Selling for Viacom.

Shares of Viacom can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Viacom stock can currently be purchased for approximately $34.74.