Anyone care to speculate what happens in Seattle the stock has tanked for like months. It’s under 3 bucks a share. I know some people don’t think it matters but then they declare lay-off time around end of year or quarters or whatever. Are they going to sell off some of the AM stations or get rid of expensive stuff?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
IHeart media IHRT stock is tanking. What are going to do in Seattle because of it?
- Thread starter Cobra14
- Start date
Nothing. All media stocks are way down. And nobody wants AM stations anymore.
I feel like this is the Audacy question from four or five months ago all over again. I think I said it in that thread and I'll say it here, any format change locally resulting from financial issues at the corporate level is going to come from Audacy. It's my impression that iHeart is pretty healthy financially after its bankruptcy a few years ago, so I doubt much will be changing. Then again, it's iHeart we're talking about, so there's probably another bloodbath coming.
Companies that lose money aren't highly valued by the stock market. The most optimistic analyst on iHeart projects the company will lose $378 million, and the most pessimistic projects a loss of $1 billion for calendar 2023.
iHeart will probably cut staff again in December or January, because they do that every year.
iHeart will probably cut staff again in December or January, because they do that every year.
Something to remember is stock per share price is not indicative of the health of a company. How many times have we seen a publicly traded company report better-than-expected earnings, yet their stock plummets? All traditional media companies have been caught up in Wall St. believing they have limited or nonexistent futures. It's what happens when a company goes public. They sell their soul to analysts and people who make predictions without much knowledge of the industry.
And the best way to excite the analysts and the lemmings who buy or sell every time the analysts tell them to is to slash workforce and payroll. One-quarter of the workforce laid off? Buy, buy, buy! To me, it sounds like a racetrack tout suggesting I bet on a three-legged horse, but Wall Street is a whole 'nother gambling game.
Certainly not a perfect indicator, but it is an indicator. Feel free to point out some healthy, profitable companies trading with iHeart under $3.
You tell me. Name one from this calendar year.
I will then point out a company which tried to hide bad news the same day as their higher-than expected profits.
I know this may be shocking to everyone in the Seattle socialism scene, but companies that lose money do in fact have limited or non existent futures.
Okay, this is right off my ETrade screen from this morning:
Granted not under $3, but iHeart has many more actively traded shares on the market which dilutes the overall share price.
And that's the risk one takes by going public. Everything is great until it isn't. That said; traditional media companies, let alone radio, have little to no growth potential based on the continued growth of new forms of smartphone apps, and soon new wearable-connected devices.
I'm glad I sold all my media stocks in 2022. Those stocks actually had a decent 2021, so I made a decent amount of money on them. At the same time though, I decided I wouldn't continue investing in media, as the long term performance has been flat at best. Sure I would have made bank had I invested in SBS when I got into the stock market in early 2021, but had I got in say in 2017, I would have just broken even by the time I was ready to sell. I'm not going to intentionally buy a stock with that kind of performance over that period of time. I'll have to look at Townsquare's stock when I open Robinhood later, but it seems they've been the most stable of the big media companies over the past several years.
TSQ made around than $100,000 in profit over the last 12 months. While that's better than some of their competitors, it's not exactly Microsoft.
The big fall in the share price you saw in August? That was them missing on earnings by $0.67/share, or about $11 million for the quarter.
I can't think of a terrestrial/streaming broadcaster that has ever approached Microsoft in revenue or share price. Not a fair comparison.
But that's the point. Publicly traded traditional broadcast companies reliant on ad sales-business share price has been up and down since 2008. A lot of that is Wall St. doesn't see any growth potential, and broadcast asset values reset after the 2008 recession. It doesn't mean any of them are as profitable or with growth upside, but it doesn't mean they're circling the drain either.
Impressions aren't facts. "Pretty healthy financially" is based on an impression?
But this is the 2020's Bill. Facts are no longer a thing. All one needs are impressions and feelings.
The actual fact is, I know nothing outside of what I've heard from the trades about the health of any of the major groups. For all I know, Hubbard could have found some grand new way to generate revenue and is making bank. I highly doubt that though. By pretty healthy, I guess I meant that they appear to be holding their own, but I really have no idea outside of the company's stock price how iHeart is actually doing.
From an investment perspective, I probably would avoid investing in stock for major media companies. Actually, I'd probably advise against trying to do your own trading on e-trade in general. The only reason I use it is because I received some stocks from an employee stock option program a few years ago. Despite my money being invested in a somewhat recognizable tech company, I still have managed to lose money on that deal. For serious investments, it's probably a better idea to consult with the professionals and let them take over. Their entire livelihood depends on your success, so I trust them more than I trust myself.
Amazon didn't make a profit for its first decade of existence. Technically, it was losing money. It definitely didn't have a non-existent future. One of the factors probably keeping it afloat was the tremendous market potential, and it's massive customer base which indicated that it was here to stay. Spotify and Pandora have been practically in the red for most of their existence.
It's obvious that although companies that do not make money generally don't last long, there are some exceptions. Until a new media completely replaces radio (and that hasn't happened yet, although it is gradually occurring) I think radio in general, and radio companies, will be around for a while.
I've moved most of my money into different investments now, but at the time I opened my Robinhood account, I only had a small amount to work with, and I wanted to try and get a larger return than what I was getting on my savings account. I've been trying to close that account for almost two years now, but I've got two stocks that won't turn around on me right now, and I figure I still have time to let them change. It sure seems like you have to be loaded up in the big tech names in order to make money in this market.
- Status