The nation’s No. 1 owner of broadcast TV stations already enjoys the highest valuation of any publicly traded media company on the stock market. Now, Nexstar Media Group can revel in the fact that it has pushed its stock price back to a level last seen in early August, rebounding by nearly $20 per share.
As of 10:45am Eastern on Friday, “NXST,” which trades on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, was up by 2.3% from Thursday’s closing price, to $173.49.
That’s great news for investors ahead of the company’s November 7 release of its third quarter earnings report, as Nexstar shares were valued at $154.25 as recently as August 12.
Last week, Zacks Equity Research detected a potential “big move” for Nexstar shares, as options traders were active on a December 20 $95 call, which Zacks said “had some of the highest implied volatility” of all equity options as of October 14.
Analysts have a $199.78 1-year target price pegged on Nexstar, majority interest holder in The CW Network and the parent of NewsNation, WGN Radio and a collection of television stations that includes former Tribune properties such as KTLA in Los Angeles and WGN in Chicago.
Of the eight analysts that track Nexstar, the Q3 2024 earnings per share predicts are significantly wide-ranging, with $4.31 on the low side and $6.55 on the high side.
Nine analysts chimed in with revenue estimates for Q3, and Nexstar is expected to present a number between $1.35 billion and $1.39 billion.
