With the 2024 Summer Olympics going on in Paris, it’s clearly time to wonder if media company Comcast (CMCSA) can deliver with its Peacock streaming platform. Investors appear to be betting it can, as Comcast shares are up over 4% in Friday afternoon’s trading, likely a consequence of the expected win Comcast will net from Olympic broadcasts.
The Peacock platform has been around for four years, and a big splash isn’t really something that it’s made. Despite having a staggering array of content available to it, a lot of that content is booked elsewhere, and the originals rolling out have been a bit hit or miss. Twisted Metal proved to be an unexpected major win for Peacock, but people weren’t quite so enthusiastic about its other offerings.
However, with Peacock poised to offer up the entire Summer Games on its platform for the first time, it’s clear that all eyes will be on the platform to see if it can get viewers and not fall apart in the presentation.
A Big Sports Deal, Too
But Comcast is more than just Peacock and is working on a new deal. In fact, Comcast subscribers may soon be able to watch Major League Baseball games again, as some of them have reportedly been without such games for the last three months. A carriage dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group has left Comcast without baseball in many places. However, that could be about to come to an end as a new deal is “nearly complete.”
Terms of the deal are being kept fairly quiet right now, but with Diamond in bankruptcy proceedings, it might be that Diamond is just a little more willing to deal now than it previously was. Regardless of motive, it could be a step forward for all concerned, including the people who just want to watch baseball again.
Is Comcast a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on CMCSA stock based on 12 Buys, six Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 9.6% loss in its share price over the past year, the average CMCSA price target of $47.33 per share implies 18.77% upside potential.
