Thanksgiving, in the United States, is all about tradition. And for Paramount (PARA), it had something of a long-standing one itself connected to Thanksgiving: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But this year will be a bit different; CBS, which typically shows the parade, will not be showing it. And that news hit shareholders like a bus, sending it down over 4% in the closing minutes of Tuesday’s trading.
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Normally, CBS airs the parade alongside Comcast’s (CMCSA) NBC. But this year, it will only be NBC showing the parade, as CBS will be out of the picture. This is widely being regarded as an unexpected move, and—per reports from Broadway World—no one is exactly sure why CBS demurred on the parade this year.
That is not to say that Paramount is out of the parade business, though; Paramount will have some new balloons in the parade, with a particular focus on its Nickelodeon properties, noted a release from Nickelodeon. Of course, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be on hand, as they often are. This year will see Latina explorer Dora of Dora the Explorer and Marshall from Paw Patrol stepping in to join the parade.
Mighty Mouse, Ryan Reynolds Style?
Separately, Ryan Reynolds is widely known as an actor who does action about as well as he does comedy, as exemplified by his recent performances as Deadpool. So, it may not come as much of a surprise to see him take a run at Mighty Mouse, the long-running—in one form or another—cartoon. Paramount Animation is turning to Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort Productions, to do the job.
A report from Cartoon Brew noted that the Mighty Mouse film is part of a first-look deal that Maximum Effort has with Paramount. There are no details on how the deal will be set up or what Paramount will be paying for this. But if it goes through, it will be quite a feat; an attempt to produce a Mighty Mouse feature film has been ongoing since the mid-1990s, the report noted, with no success as yet.
Is Paramount Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on PARA stock based on two Buys, seven Holds, and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 23.51% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PARA price target of $12.56 per share implies 17.93% upside potential.