Things have been somewhat rocky for entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) lately, thanks to a combination of factors ranging from a changing entertainment market to a changing internal landscape. But there are still those with faith in Warner, like Benchmark. Benchmark’s faith was echoed by investors, who gave Warner shares a fractional boost in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s trading.
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Benchmark expressed its faith in about the only way its team of analysts could. It kept its Buy rating in place, and also left its $18 price target in place. With Warner planning to release an earnings report tomorrow morning, this was a clear sign of faith in what is to come for Warner.
It got better from there, though. Benchmark declared Warner stock a “Benchmark Best Idea,” looking for “satisfactory” results out of the company’s earnings report. The upcoming split also called Benchmark’s attention in predictable fashion; while Benchmark looks for “much improved Streaming & Studios momentum,” it also looks for “continued Global Linear Networks challenges.” This is perhaps the perfect way to summarize the situation we have seen developing not only at Warner, but at several different media companies in the last few months.
The Value of Retail at Warner
Meanwhile, we heard yesterday about Warner’s plans to get together with Particula to bring out an automated “Wizard’s Chess” set. This is, of course, just scratching the surface of Warner merchandise. In fact, a recent interview between Blooloop and two Warner officials—senior vice president and general manager of retail experiences Karl Durrant and creative director Diana Li—demonstrated just how vital retail is to Warner.
Durrant noted that retail in an attraction, like a theme park, is fundamentally different from an online shop or a standard store. Such retail operations need to draw on the experience itself and incorporate elements therein to better connect the user and the experience. Li, meanwhile, explained how one such attraction, the Cosme Acajor wand shop at Universal’s (CMCSA) Epic Universe, took shape, building a retail space in real life out of a retail space that was originally designed for the film series.
Is WBD Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on 10 Buys and eight Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 64.98% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $13.36 per share implies 4.46% upside potential.
