Entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is still a separate company, until the last regulator finally gives up and allows Paramount Skydance (PSKY) to take over what it agreed to buy. So for now, Warner is handling its own operations, and running its own upfronts. Investors were about as subdued as the upfronts themselves, and shares slipped fractionally in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s trading.
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Warner showed off a variety of new updates for advertising at its upfront, showing off ways to make ads more interactive, more personal to each customer, and ensure their performance can be better measured. All of these points depended on the assistance of agentic artificial intelligence (AI), a familiar help in times of trouble.
Warner also showed off the material advertisers can buy in on, including a Rick & Morty spinoff featuring Keith David reprising his President Curtis role in the series of the same name, President Curtis. Also included are a true-crime documentary series from Shaquille O’Neal, and KPop Shark Heroes, a special feature for Shark Week. Reaction was mixed, with many thinking that the proceedings felt more like a funeral for Warner Bros. Discovery than anything, with the likely Paramount buyout looming overhead.
Nobody Ask About Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Meanwhile, reports from Warner’s first quarter financials were noticeably light on information about Warner’s gaming arm. Games revenue plunged a frightening 30%, reports noted, and most of what Warner had to say about its gaming operation was that Warner was “…preparing for its next chapter.”
Instead, Warner lumped the gaming operation together as part of the Studios operation, which, apparently, “…continues to make steady progress toward our target of at least $3 billion in Adjusted EBITDA supported by a diversified portfolio of first-run film and television, content library, video games and experiences businesses.” Ordinarily this would be a bad sign. But for a business that is basically marking time until its acquisition, this should probably be expected.
Is WBD Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on WBD stock based on 13 Holds and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 198.14% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $29.61 per share implies 9.19% upside potential.
