Short Interest in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) Declines By 15.5%

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 80,050,000 shares, a decline of 15.5% from the December 31st total of 94,760,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 29,470,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 3.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WBD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $16.00 target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $9.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Warner Bros. Discovery has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $11.76.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WBD opened at $10.62 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.12 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Warner Bros. Discovery has a 1 year low of $6.64 and a 1 year high of $12.70.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.79 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative net margin of 28.34% and a negative return on equity of 27.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.17) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Warner Bros. Discovery will post -4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Warner Bros. Discovery news, insider Savalle Sims sold 169,436 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.36, for a total transaction of $2,094,228.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 599,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,407,558.12. The trade was a 22.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WBD. State Street Corp boosted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 4.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 151,285,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,248,109,000 after buying an additional 5,898,611 shares in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. boosted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 24.7% in the third quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 28,410,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,386,000 after buying an additional 5,625,545 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 2.6% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 21,396,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,523,000 after buying an additional 541,192 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 20,889,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after buying an additional 329,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 4.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,685,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,405,000 after buying an additional 687,612 shares in the last quarter. 59.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Warner Bros. Discovery Company Profile

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc operates as a media and entertainment company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Studios, Network, and DTC. The Studios segment produces and releases feature films for initial exhibition in theaters; produces and licenses television programs to its networks and third parties and direct-to-consumer services; distributes films and television programs to various third parties and internal television; and offers streaming services and distribution through the home entertainment market, themed experience licensing, and interactive gaming.