WBD raises savings target

Article Excerpt

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY INC. $14 is a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol WBD; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $33.6 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.wbd.com) took its current form in April 2022 when AT&T merged its WarnerMedia business with Discovery Inc. AT&T investors received 0.241917 shares of WBD as a tax-free distribution for each share they owned. WBD’s top brands include Warner Bros. studio (TV shows and movies) and cable TV channels CNN, HBO, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC and Animal Planet. The company now aims to cut $4.0 billion from its annual expenses by the end of 2024. That’s up from its earlier goal of $3.0 billion. Thanks to those savings, WBD has repaid $7.0 billion of its debt since the merger. Its total debt of $49.5 billion (as of December 31, 2022) is a high 1.5 times its market cap. However, 91% of those loans are at fixed rates and have an average maturity of…