The novel coronavirus has greatly impacted many public traded broadcast media company’s Wall Street performance. However, some companies, such as Nexstar Media Group, saw their shares rebound in the weeks since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Beasley Media Group, a mid-June burst in value that put BBGI at levels higher than those seen in early March were highly promising. By late June, however, hopes of a share recovery were dashed.
Now, with Tuesday’s trading signaling another down session, Beasley shares are at their lowest point since dipping to $1.37 a share on March 23 — the COVID-impacted low for the company.
As of Tuesday’s Closing Bell on the Nasdaq Global Market, BBGI was off by 6.06% from Monday’s close.
That puts Beasley shares at $1.55.
The only period during which BBGI fell below that price is from March 20-23.
Discounting the pandemic, it was January 2009 — at the height of the “Great Recession” — when BBGI was last at the $1.55 mark.
Beasley’s share value has been on a gradual descent across the last five weeks, and through the release on August 4 of its Q2 2020 fiscal results. The performance for BBGI since then may be in reaction to the following data: Month-by-month ad trends showed June 2020 down by 43.7%, “improving” from a 60.6% ad revenue decline in May.
And, with heavy exposure to Sports in the Boston market, where it owns WBZ-FM 98.5, investor fears about continued live event postponements or curtailments could be playing a role.
Nevertheless, Beasley is showing subsequential improvement: July was expected to be down 32% year-over-year. While that is an improvement, it may not signal a swift-enough recovery to justify a share price above where it will start its trading day on August 26.
