I want to make sure everyone saw that Zenith Optimedia reduced its forecast for 2008 US advertising growth. Zenith presents its year ahead forecast each December at the UBS Media and Communications Conference. I attend that conference most years and have always been impressed by the Zenith presentation. The new forecast calls for a gain […]
A whirlwind weekend had me all over the place so just a brief comment on another great weekend for the box office this morning. But first, major props to Providence, RI where I dropped my daughter off for a summer in the Early College program at Rhode Island School of Design. The city has done […]
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) shares popped yesterday afternoon. I presume it was due to a report from Jessica Reif of Merrill Lynch which I received after the close. Jessica raised her 2Q08 and 2008 EPS estimates from below to above consensus on the basis of the strength in the Kung Fu Panda box office. She noted […]
APP reached agreement on a new amended credit agreement with its lead bank. Back in early June the stock took a dive on the day the company announced that negotiations were ongoing but that the first deadline had been missed. Not surprisingly the shares are rallying nicely today, up 6.5% right now. Volume is decently […]
The box office rose for the fourth consecutive weekend with the top 12 films up 9.7% according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. Every weekend in June has been up bringing the summer to a 2.6% gain. Quarter-to-date the box office is still down 2% due to a very weak April. Comps stiffen considerably starting this coming weekend but […]
Media stocks continue to act poorly. When I sold Northlake’s positions in Disney and News Corporation on the last trading day in May I was beginning to see more evidence that the deep recession in local advertising media like newspapers and radio was beginning to spread to national advertising such as TV. I had also […]
The weekend box office was strong again, up 25% vs. a year ago. Another good weekend brings the summer, which begins the first weekend in May in Hollywood, into positive territory, up 2%. A poor April leaves the quarterly comp still down 3% but one more weekend of easy comps will probably allow the quarter […]
An analyst I know well, Michael Morris of UBS, downgraded Dreamworks Animation (DWA) this morning driving the shares down more than 7%. I added a little to some smaller client positions on the weakness. The downgrade is based on Morris’ belief that even after after raising his outlook for Kung Fu Panda the shares are […]
I purchased Dreamworks Animation (DWA) across client and personal accounts near the open of trading on Monday. The purchase is intended as a “trading buy” which means I am expecting to be out of the position in less than one year. The holding period may be even shorter if the stock attains my target of […]
So far my sales of Disney has held up pretty well, down just a bit, while News Corp has fallen about 5%. Disney might be getting a boost from some initial reports that ABC is writing upfront business at decent CPM increases, maybe even large enough to offset potentially double digit down ratings guarantees and […]
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