Craig-Hallum downgrades BuzzFeed to Hold as commerce headwinds arise

As previously reported, Craig-Hallum downgraded BuzzFeed (BZFD) to Hold from Buy with a $1 price target after the company saw challenged Q3 results, primarily due to Commerce weakness as retailers – including Amazon (AMZN) -changed incentive structures, leading to a revenue miss and an even larger impact to gross margins and EBITDA. The firm sees the results reflecting the risk of dependence on 3P relationships, which could impact future quarters. Furthermore, Craig-Hallum believes BuzzFeed’s shares need a growth catalyst to re-rate higher, and given the lack of a near-term growth catalyst it sees upside limited near-term.