Sherman Porfolios LLC Acquires New Position in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. $WBD

Sherman Porfolios LLC bought a new position in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 24,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Warner Bros. Discovery by 304.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 68,950 shares of the company’s stock valued at $729,000 after acquiring an additional 51,920 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery by 50.5% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 63,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $679,000 after purchasing an additional 21,228 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 65,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,779 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its stake in Warner Bros. Discovery by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 116,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,254,000 after purchasing an additional 55,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its holdings in Warner Bros. Discovery by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 15,211 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,684 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.95% of the company’s stock.

Warner Bros. Discovery News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Warner Bros. Discovery this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oscars windfall strengthens WBD’s premium content credentials — multiple Warner Bros. films won major Academy Awards, which boosts the studio’s reputation, franchise value and potential monetization leverage ahead of strategic talks. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial tie-up: GoPro renewed as the official wearable camera supplier for WBD’s WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, a small but visible sports/branding win that supports engagement in the company’s sports assets. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Paramount Skydance merger remains the dominant valuation driver — the $110B deal’s progress and regulatory/closing risk will ultimately determine the stock’s longer-term direction, so awards and partnerships are secondary for investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and market context: coverage is mixed (average “Hold”), and the stock has rallied notably in recent months — investors should weigh M&A outcomes against current price vs. analyst targets. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Governance and insider selling raise concern — filings show CEO David Zaslav stands to receive up to ~$887M tied to the Paramount deal, and directors have sold stock (e.g., Fazal Merchant’s 35,000-share sale and a large disclosed director sale), which can create selling pressure and governance scrutiny. Read More. Read More. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WBD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barrington Research lowered Warner Bros. Discovery from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Warner Bros. Discovery from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $29.00 price target on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Warner Bros. Discovery in a report on Friday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.30.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Warner Bros. Discovery news, insider Gerhard Zeiler sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.02, for a total transaction of $16,812,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 672,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,847,624.98. This trade represents a 47.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David Zaslav sold 4,004,149 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.26, for a total transaction of $113,157,250.74. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 7,200,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $203,489,719.02. This represents a 35.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 8,206,827 shares of company stock valued at $230,674,025 over the last three months. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Warner Bros. Discovery Trading Down 1.0%

NASDAQ:WBD opened at $27.35 on Thursday. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. has a 1 year low of $7.52 and a 1 year high of $30.00. The stock has a market cap of $67.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.31 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.18.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $9.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.33 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery had a return on equity of 1.98% and a net margin of 1.95%.Warner Bros. Discovery’s revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.20) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. will post -4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) is a global media and entertainment company formed when WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc combined their businesses in 2022. Headquartered in New York City, the company assembles a broad portfolio of film and television production, linear and cable networks, streaming services and consumer distribution operations. Its assets span well-known studio brands, premium scripted and unscripted programming, news and factual entertainment, and licensed franchise properties.

The company’s core activities include film and television production and distribution through units such as Warner Bros.