Investors Purchase High Volume of Warner Bros. Discovery Call Options (NASDAQ:WBD)

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors bought 58,442 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 31% compared to the average volume of 44,598 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Warner Bros. Discovery

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WBD. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Warner Bros. Discovery in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in Warner Bros. Discovery during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. OFI Invest Asset Management grew its holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery by 45.9% during the second quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 3,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 665.4% in the first quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 3,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Warner Bros. Discovery in the first quarter worth $39,000. 59.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from $7.50 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $9.00 price objective on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.66.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Performance

Warner Bros. Discovery stock opened at $9.37 on Friday. Warner Bros. Discovery has a 12-month low of $6.64 and a 12-month high of $12.70. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.95 and a beta of 1.48.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($4.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($3.89). The firm had revenue of $9.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.07 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 27.28% and a negative net margin of 29.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.51) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Warner Bros. Discovery will post -4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Warner Bros. Discovery

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.