Raymond James double downgrades Warner Bros. with bidding war over

Raymond James last night double downgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Underperform from Outperform without a price target. The company’s board determined that Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) latest $31 per share all-cash bid for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s (NFLX) $27.75 per share bid for just its Streaming and Studios business, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Netflix declining to raise its offer effectively ends the bidding war for Warner, says Raymond James. The firm says that since it does not anticipate any more topping bids, Warner “now becomes a more traditional ‘arb spread’ stock.” It sees more attractive potential returns elsewhere in its coverage.