Broadcasting Stocks

It bears a 1-year target estimate of $7. And, it hasn't been priced that low since mid-November. Cumulus Media stock has proven resilient in these COVID-19 pandemic times, and with Thursday morning trading on Wall Street, ahead of a PM dip, CMLS is again approaching its highest closing price since early March 2020.

With chaos on Capitol Hill putting a dark cloud on what appears to be a shift of the U.S. Senate to Democratic control with wins in Georgia by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, U.S. financial markets were divergent — the Dow Industrials climbed, while Nasdaq was down.

Of course, the nation's largest owner of broadcast TV stations and WGN America, which just lured Ashleigh Banfield to host a 10pm prime-time news and interview show come March 2021, will also be releasing its Q4 2020 results. Here's when, and what to expect.

In morning trading on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, Nexstar Media Group shares were trading above the $110 mark. Should NXST finish at that price, it will conclude a healthy recovery effort for the broadcast media company's stock that began in mid-April, just days after Nexstar shares fell to their lowest levels since October 2016.

On March 30, with COVID-19 pandemic concerns cratering media industry stocks and questions galore arising over the company's RSN deal with FOX, Sinclair Broadcast Group shares dipped to $12.25, a price last seen roughly eight years ago. Nine months later, SBGI has rebounded so strongly that it is just pennies away from its year-to-date high.

Snapchat's purpose on smartphones may still be questioned by some, despite Radio's use of its social media platform to connect with listeners. Yet, there's no question that Snapchat's parent has had one of the hottest stocks on the NYSE since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With Tuesday's close, it is more than $42 per share above its March 11 level.

With a handful of exceptions, including Cumulus Media, radio and TV stocks were largely on the rise as the final trading week of 2020 kicked off on Monday. Among the gainers: Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Dish, which just resolved its retransmission consent impasse with Nexstar Media Group.

U.S. broadcast media companies saw widely disparate activity on Wall Street Monday, with companies such as Townsquare Media seeing a healthy jump from Friday, while TEGNA and Urban One were also up. Every other company on the RBR+TVBR Wall Street Report ticker was down.

For stock watchers, one thing has become very clear over the last several weeks on Wall Street: The nation's No. 1 audio entertainment and media company, iHeart, is seeing a strong recovery from its COVID-19 pandemic-fueled low. On the other hand, shakiness abounds for Entercom shares.

Broadcasting companies publicly traded on Wall Street were largely up at the Closing Bell on Tuesday. One company, however, sticks out for another dip in value. That would be Entercom.

At 11:44am Eastern, ETM fell hard -- dipping from $2.54 to $2.24 on one big sale. At day's end, volume was nearly double its average, as Entercom stock traveled downward by more than 13%. The downward activity continued in early after-hours trading.

The Walt Disney Company announced late Thursday that it would raise its monthly subscription fee for Disney+, its OTT service, to $7.99 per month as of March 2021. It then tripled its subscriber projections for 2024. Investors responded in resounding fashion, with DIS soaring by nearly 14% in the final hour of trading Friday on the NYSE.

For Nielsen Holdings, Wednesday was "Investor Day." It was also the day the company formally unveiled the "new Nielsen," with a "detailed view of its focused growth strategy and medium-term financial framework" on display.

While Cumulus Media deserves credit for doubling its stock price in seven months' time, an audio industry peer is also in need of some more spotlights, as it, too, has seen its stock recover nicely since the end of October. That company is Townsquare Media.

Normally, Daniel Jones and his Crude Value Insights focuses on oil and gas companies. Yet, he's offered an in-depth assessment of Entercom's fiscal health and has a conclusion with respect to its worthiness as an investment opportunity for those who play the stock market. His conclusion? "There are better prospects out there."