With ViacomCBS‘s March 23-24 stock plunge largely fueled by a gargantuan $3 billion equity offering, there’s another angle to the decline some Wall Street observers have suggested.
With Paramount + not living up to its hype, in their eyes, companies with heavy investments in streaming could suffer from slower-than-anticipated growth. While that’s a leap and based purely on speculation, some key radio station owners have been caught up in the sell-offs.
The nation’s No. 1 audio media and content company, iHeartMedia, saw its shares stumble across Wednesday, ending at $16.05. That reflects a 6.4% dip from Tuesday. As such, iHeart is down by nearly $3 per share since its March 17 52-week peak.
While the dip is notable, iHeart stock remains at its highest levels since January 2020.
For Entercom, a 5.6% dip to $5.02 was seen largely due to a late-session sale call. While the drop brings ETM back to where it was on March 5, Entercom shares remain at their highest levels since July 2019.
At Townsquare Media, which has a large local digital and programmatic business, shares declined by 7.1%, with declines multiplying across the afternoon hours. Still, the $10.16 closing price is still one of the best seen for Townsquare since October 2017.
Late selling also impacted Cumulus Media, but to a lesser extent, with shares off 3% to $10.35. CMLS remains at 13-week highs.
Meanwhile, diversified company Urban One lost 7 cents in Wednesday’s trading but was up 2 cents in early after-hours trading, putting shares at $5.40.
