Stagwell price target raised to $9 from $8 at Craig-Hallum

Craig-Hallum raised the firm’s price target on Stagwell (STGW) to $9 from $8 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares ahead of quarterly results. The firm is making modest tweaks to estimates which largely reflect higher pass-through revenue in an election year, which results in a modest reduction to revenue, but no changes to net revenue. With a strong start to the year in new client activity, Craig-Hallum anticipates an 8th straight quarter of net new wins over $100M, with the potential for a record quarter. Additionally, the firm points out that Stagwell has seen virtually no disruption to domestic ad budgets since the Iran conflict began, suggesting continuing durability of budgets.