National Pension Service Acquires 229,635 Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. $WBD

National Pension Service lifted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) by 3.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,792,065 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 229,635 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery were worth $181,076,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WBD. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,616,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,301,000 after buying an additional 2,980,900 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in Warner Bros. Discovery by 130.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 1,008,638 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,069,000 after acquiring an additional 571,612 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 304.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 68,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $729,000 after acquiring an additional 51,920 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 66,597,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,912,634,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,346 shares during the period. Finally, Empyrean Capital Partners LP grew its position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 29.1% in the first quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP now owns 2,583,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,929,000 after purchasing an additional 583,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.95% of the company’s stock.

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Up 1.0%

NASDAQ WBD opened at $28.20 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company has a market cap of $70.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.20 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a 50 day moving average of $27.20 and a 200-day moving average of $27.24. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.56 and a 1-year high of $30.00.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.20. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 8.91% and a negative net margin of 8.77%.The business had revenue of $8.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Fazal F. Merchant sold 71,539 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.75, for a total value of $1,985,207.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 33,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $917,609.25. The trade was a 68.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David Zaslav sold 194,999 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.02, for a total transaction of $5,463,871.98. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,807,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,758,310.68. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,553,034 shares of company stock worth $70,990,967. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on WBD. Weiss Ratings raised Warner Bros. Discovery from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Seaport Research Partners lowered Warner Bros. Discovery from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Huber Research upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Freedom Capital upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Warner Bros. Discovery from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Warner Bros. Discovery presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.69.

Warner Bros. Discovery Company Profile

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc is a global media and entertainment company that develops, produces and distributes television, film and digital content. Its portfolio includes Warner Bros. film and television studios, HBO, CNN, Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, TNT Sports and other well-known brands.

The company operates streaming services including Max, which features HBO programming, Warner Bros. films, original series and other entertainment content, and discovery+, which focuses on lifestyle, documentary and nonfiction programming.