Meta, Alphabet and 10 under-the-radar media -2-

Yelp Inc.                                    YELP               31%        $106       $344                 78%                  55%              $2,909 
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A                  META               47%     $36,965    $78,129                717%                 137%            $634,547 
Scholastic Corp.                             SCHL               54%        $108       $201                319%                  12%              $1,314 
Electronic Arts Inc.                          EA                73%      $1,951     $2,678                605%                  -2%             $32,425 
World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Class A   WWE                93%        $415       $448                479%                  66%              $9,455 
Activision Blizzard Inc.                     ATVI               93%      $3,612     $3,891               2159%                  21%             $72,118 
                                                                                                                                        Source: FactSet 

New York Times Co. (NYT) takes the prize, with no debt.

Wall Street's favorite media companies

Starting again with the 52 companies in the sector, 46 are covered by at least five analysts polled by FactSet. Among these companies, 12 are rated "buy" or the equivalent by at least 70% of the analysts:

Company                              Ticker  Share "buy" ratings  Aug. 25 price  Consensus price target  Implied 12-month upside potential 
Thryv Holdings Inc.                   THRY                  100%         $21.11                  $35.50                                68% 
T-Mobile US Inc.                      TMUS                   90%        $133.35                 $174.96                                31% 
Nexstar Media Group Inc.              NXST                   90%        $157.08                 $212.56                                35% 
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A           META                   88%        $285.50                 $375.27                                31% 
Cars.com Inc.                         CARS                   86%         $18.85                  $23.79                                26% 
Alphabet Inc. Class A                GOOGL                   82%        $129.88                 $150.04                                16% 
Iridium Communications Inc.           IRDM                   80%         $47.80                  $66.00                                38% 
News Corp. Class A                    NWSA                   78%         $20.74                  $26.42                                27% 
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.    TTWO                   74%        $141.42                 $155.96                                10% 
Live Nation Entertainment Inc.        LYV                    74%         $84.79                 $109.94                                30% 
Frontier Communications Parent Inc.   FYBR                   73%         $15.24                  $31.36                               106% 
Match Group Inc.                      MTCH                   70%         $43.79                  $56.90                                30% 
                                                                                                                           Source: FactSet 

News Corp. (NWSA) is the parent company of MarketWatch.

Finally, here are the debt figures for these 12 media companies favored by the analysts:

Company                              Ticker  Debt/ est. EBIT  Total debt  Est. EBIT  Debt service ratio  Total return -- 2023  Market cap. ($mil) 
Thryv Holdings Inc.                   THRY              227%        $433       $191                 53%                  11%                $730 
T-Mobile US Inc.                      TMUS              378%    $116,548    $30,838                 32%                  -5%            $156,881 
Nexstar Media Group Inc.              NXST              358%      $7,183     $2,009                 63%                  -8%              $5,511 
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A           META               47%     $36,965    $78,129                717%                 137%            $634,547 
Cars.com Inc.                         CARS              223%        $451       $202                 41%                  37%              $1,253 
Alphabet Inc. Class A                GOOGL               22%     $29,432   $133,096                711%                  47%          $1,528,711 
Iridium Communications Inc.           IRDM              306%      $1,481       $483                 54%                  -7%              $5,977 
News Corp. Class A                    NWSA              261%      $4,207     $1,611                109%                  15%             $11,940 
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.    TTWO              272%      $3,492     $1,283                -40%                  36%             $24,017 
Live Nation Entertainment Inc.        LYV               466%      $8,413     $1,805                135%                  22%             $19,515 
Frontier Communications Parent Inc.   FYBR              453%      $9,844     $2,173                 85%                 -40%              $3,745 
Match Group Inc.                      MTCH              287%      $3,839     $1,337                540%                   6%             $12,177 
                                                                                                                                 Source: FactSet 

In case you are wondering about how the analysts feel about debt-free New York Times, it appears the analysts believe the shares are fairly priced at $42.60. Among eight analysts polled by FactSet, three rated NYT a buy, while the rest had neutral ratings. The consensus price target was $43.93. The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 27.7, which is high when compared with the forward P/E of 21.7 for the S&P 500 SPX.

-Emily Bary

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09-02-23 0851ET

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