Empirical Finance LLC Boosts Stock Position in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD)

Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 79,751 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,713 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery were worth $696,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WBD. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 1,272,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,109,000 after acquiring an additional 79,825 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 458,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,002,000 after acquiring an additional 5,830 shares during the last quarter. Wittenberg Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 60.4% in the 1st quarter. Wittenberg Investment Management Inc. now owns 898,178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,841,000 after acquiring an additional 338,050 shares during the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 4,901,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,790,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its holdings in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 41,516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $362,000 after acquiring an additional 5,259 shares during the last quarter. 59.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WBD has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $8.50 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Warner Bros. Discovery from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Warner Bros. Discovery from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $7.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.82.

Warner Bros. Discovery Price Performance

Shares of WBD traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $7.40. The stock had a trading volume of 17,993,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,654,412. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $7.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.82. The company has a market capitalization of $18.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.01 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a 52 week low of $6.94 and a 52 week high of $14.76.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.22 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery had a negative return on equity of 6.58% and a negative net margin of 7.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.18 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc operates as a media and entertainment company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Studios, Network, and DTC. The Studios segment produces and releases feature films for initial exhibition in theaters; produces and licenses television programs to its networks and third parties and direct-to-consumer services; distributes films and television programs to various third parties and internal television; and offers streaming services and distribution through the home entertainment market, themed experience licensing, and interactive gaming.