Truist sees Shutterstock-Getty merger as a positive for combined entity

Truist reiterated a Buy rating on Shutterstock (SSTK) after the announced merger with Getty Images (GETY). The firm believes the merger, once finalized, will bolster the combined company’s competitive positioning amid growing AI-based competition, giving it more pricing power, a richer library of content for enterprise customers and for genAI platforms to train their models on. Furthermore, the combination provides contributors substantially greater opportunities across products and content types to reach over 1.4M pro-forma annual subscribers and customers in over 200 countries, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm sees the merger as a positive for the combined entity and in the best interest of Shutterstock shareholders longer-term.