On May 9, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler hosted the company’s first quarter 2024 earnings call directly opposite a call hosted by Townsquare Media executives, in which they shared detailed with investors and analysts of their own Q1 2024 report. With the iHeartMedia call appearing on the calendar after Townsquare scheduled its own, there were no analysts asking Pittman or Bressler any questions.
Perhaps there was nothing to ask, in their minds, as the company’s stock finished that day’s trading with a 36% decline in value. Two weeks later, iHeartMedia’s share price has entered a new phase of concern — its trading below $1 per share.
With iHeart Podcasts COO Carrie Lieberman and other company representatives in London for The Podcast Show 2024, which saw Lieberman appear at a 2pm session called “A Transatlantic View — A Birds Eye View of the U.S. and U.K. Markets,” the company’s Nasdaq GlobalSelect market trading continued its downward trajectory on Thursday.
This presents the industry, which already has sub-$1 stock trading from debtor-in-possession Audacy Inc. and fiscally challenged Beasley Media Group and Salem Media Group, with a new woe, as “IHRT” finished Wednesday’s trading at $0.9970.
As of 11am Eastern on Thursday, “IHRT” had declined by another 3.1%, to $0.9659. By 1:45pm, “IHRT” had fallen further and was trading at $0.9205, a 7.7% dip from Wednesday. Just before 3pm, the decline had reached 9.6%, bringing iHeart shares to $0.9020.
This represents a severe decline in share value since May 6, when iHeartMedia stock ended the day’s session at $2.36.
And, it brings a fresh conversation as to how the nation’s No. 1 audio content creation and distribution company can recover its lost share value minus a reverse stock split — or worse.
With nearly $4.86 billion in net debt, there are bright spots for iHeartMedia with respect to its revenue. In Q1, Podcast revenue was up by 18% to $90.62 million from $76.81 million. However, Broadcast Radio is the company’s revenue driver, and in Q1 it experienced a 6.2% decrease, to $359.34 million, from $383.24 million.
The current stock performance for iHeartMedia is the worst since the company’s 2019 emergence from bankruptcy protection. At that time, Kareem Chin was brought on as SVP/Head of Investor Relations for iHeartMedia, reporting to Bressler, after three years as VP/Investor Relations for Viacom. He exited iHeartMedia in September 2020 to become Head of Investor Relations at Warner Music Group.
Between the July 1, 2019 debut on the Nasdaq of “IHRT” and September 2020, shares moved from $15.45 to $9.20; at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, “IHRT” dipped only as low as $4.87. The stock challenges for iHeartMedia accelerated at the start of 2023.
The dip comes following a price target cut to $3, from $5, announced on May 16 by Guggenheim; and a decline to $2 from $1 from Goldman Sachs made on May 13.
