Broadcasting Stocks

U.S. financial markets ended the week on a down note Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average sliding 99.84, to 23,358.52, and the Nasdaq Composite index off 10.50, to 6,782.79. However, media stocks were on the rise, finishing the week on a positive note.

Viacom reported fiscal Q4 2017 earnings today that were "OK versus expectations," says Pivotal Research Group Senior Research Analyst/Advertising Brian Wieser. But, the owner of MTV, Nickelodeon and BET provided an outlook that was worse than expected. That reset Pivotal's price target on Viacom shares, which sank to a new five-year-low.

It's been a full week since Salem Media Group released what most consider to be a disappointing Q3 earnings report. Now, Salem stocks are at their lowest point since January 2016, and the sell-off continued on Wednesday until a late afternoon rally brought it into positive territory. Ed Atsinger explained his company's challenges in last Tuesday's quarterly call with financial analysts. We revisited the call, and pinpointed why Salem was off in the quarter.

With Townsquare Media noting during its Q3 conference call with financial analysts that it would put its events business in a strategic review, investors have expressed wariness as to the company's future as a small- and medium-sized radio industry pure play. That negative sentiment continued on Wall Street today, as TSQ shares saw a nearly 3% dip.

Cumulus Media made an SEC filing Monday that outlined its long-term financial forecast and business plan -- a filing precipitated by separate discussions Cumulus says it has had with "certain noteholders under the indenture governing the 7.75% Senior Notes due 2019." The key words here are "restructuring" — and that has Cumulus stock holders very nervous.

Oy ... That's the only thing we can say when looking at the activity on Wall Street Friday for several publicly traded media companies.  The downward movement continued for Salem Media Group, while investor sentiment turned sour on Townsquare Media. It was another tough day for Cumulus Media, while Veritone Inc. experienced a steep dip in its stock price.

There's no way to blunt the news from Wall Street concerning the big drop in share value for the nation's biggest owner of radio stations. The "stub" of publicly traded iHeartMedia shares sank by an incredible 54.2%, finishing the day at 55 cents. Meanwhile, Cumulus Media shares rose 11.9% -- to 36 cents.

Investors in Townsquare Media, which owns radio stations in small- to medium-markets across the eastern half of the U.S. and a division focused on fairs and outdoor festivals, were less than kind to the company following the release of largely disappointing Q3 results.

On a day that saw Cumulus Media stabilize with a much-needed gain, the radio industry needed a positive story to share with investors. Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) couldn't oblige, as its stock not controlled by Raúl Alarcón Jr. sank 10.1%, to 62 cents, in Tuesday's trading. We've also got a look at Salem Media Group's Q3 earnings just before our deadline. They weren't great.

The troubles on Wall Street continued Monday for the nation's No. 2 radio broadcasting company by number of stations, while the biggest streaming audio player in the U.S. also suffered fresh losses in the wake of a subpar Q3 earnings report. Gray Television was also down sharply, while Scripps was down nearly 10% as investors reacted to that company's subpar Q3 report.

CBS Corp. and Entravision Communications are releasing their third-quarter results after Thursday's Closing Bell on Wall Street, and we received the topline results for CBS just before we finalized today's edition. Meanwhile, Pandora's net loss widened in Q3 despite improved revenue.

Wednesday's magic word for media companies was "mixed." Up and down activity abounded, with Sinclair Broadcast Group down as investors reacted to a somewhat downbeat Q3 report card issued early Wednesday by the company seeking to merge with Tribune Media. Emmis Communications was up, while Entercom and iHeart each declined. Click here for the details.

Beasley Broadcast Group was the first of the publicly traded radio broadcasting companies to share their Q3 2017 earnings results (except for Emmis, which follows a different fiscal year). Beasley's Q3 was largely positive. Yet, investors are in a selling mood.

Investors decided to take advantage of a good third-quarter earnings report from Beasley Broadcast Group by profiting, rather than buying. BBGI shares opened on a down note, and didn't recover by the time the Closing Bell rang on Wall Street. The day's other big news involves Cumulus Media. The news isn't pretty.