Entertainment giant Paramount (PARA) has had a rough go of things the last few months, but today brought brighter news with it. In fact, it managed to break a couple records this month. The news did not prove welcome to investors, though, who sent shares down over 1.5% in the closing minutes of Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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One record was an utter winner, noted Hollywood Reporter, as Paramount managed to hit a high not seen in the last nine months. Thanks to a combination of sports and Yellowstone, noted a Nielsen report, Paramount’s various linear outlets represented 9.3% of all television viewing in the United States for November. This is the highest rating Paramount has had since the Super Bowl.
But not every record is a good one, as Yellowstone fans discovered, when the release date for the second season of 1923. It turns out 1923‘s second season will not come out until February 23,2025. That will be a gap of two years, two months and five days…a new record for lag between seasons of a live-action Paramount+ product, noted The Direct.
Onward Came The Lawsuits
While this is a mixed bag in terms of news, Paramount now has new troubles with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), noted Bloomberg. The Center for American Rights has filed its own challenge with the FCC, which is going so far as to challenge the merger between Paramount and Skydance.
The new challenge notes that, since Skydance got an investment from Tencent (TCEHY), a major Chinese company, there are now questions about “foreign influence,” the report noted. And the challenge also called attention to a familiar point: issues of bias at Paramount’s CBS News operations. Given that incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr referred to the challenge as “not frivolous,” it suggests the merger may have one more major hill to climb before it is all said and done.
Is Paramount Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on PARA stock based on three Buys, seven Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 29.37% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PARA price target of $12.60 per share implies 16.67% upside potential.
