![iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, actor Vilmer Valderrama and President/COO and CFO Rich Bressler attend a Happy Hour at iHeartCafé | La Californie during the Cannes Lions Festival on June 19 in Cannes, France. [Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images for iHeartMedia]](https://rbr.com/wp-content/uploads/2158288343-scaled-e1718914953101.jpg "iHeartMedia Hosts Happy Hour During The Cannes Lions Festival")
The nation’s top producer of audio content for podcasting and its 800+ broadcast radio stations releases its Q3 2024 earnings on Thursday morning, and the forecast is for a good fiscal check-up from CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler. This led Zacks Equity Research to ask if now is a good time to buy “IHRT.” Investors listened.
Four analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance offered their take on where iHeartMedia would finish for the third quarter, and this delivered a consensus EPS of $0.02 — a swing from -$0.06 a year ago. Five analysts offered a prediction on iHeartMedia’s Q3 revenue, and the average estimate sits at $1 billion, up 5.2% from the third quarter of 2023.
What is Zacks’ take? The answer is hardly clear, as it admits the visibility is hard. But, it notes, that analysts “have recently become bullish on the company’s earnings prospects.”
That appears to be good enough for investors, as IHRT roared ahead by more than 8% to $2.14 in early afternoon trading on Friday. This put iHeartMedia shares at a value last seen six months ago, lowering the year-to-date decline to 9%.
At the Closing Bell, IHRT finished at $2.09, up 11 cents.
With that gain, iHeartMedia shares are up by roughly 20% in the last three months.
