WBD takes a big writedown

Article Excerpt

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY INC. $7.97 is still a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol WBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $19.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; No dividend paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wbd.com) took its current form in April 2022 when AT&T merged its WarnerMedia business with Discovery Inc. AT&T investors received 0.241917 shares of WBD as a tax-free distribution for each AT&T share they owned. WBD’s top brands include Warner Bros. studio (TV shows and movies) and cable TV channels CNN, HBO, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC and Animal Planet. In the second quarter of 2024, the company wrote down the value of its TV and cable networks by $9.1 billion. That’s partly because it lost the TV rights to the National Basketball Association’s games. Due to that charge, it lost $9.99 billion, or $4.07 a share, in the quarter. A year earlier, it lost $1.24 billion, or $0.51. Revenue also fell 6.2%, to $9.71 billion…