AUD - Audacy gains 5% as B. Riley upgrades with bad news 'priced in'

Audacy (NYSE:AUD) is 5.4% higher today after an upgrade to Buy at B. Riley Securities, which sees bad news priced in ahead of an earnings inflection for the coming year. Shares in Audacy (the former Entercom Communications) are close to their 2021 lows and sentiment has been "swinging toward overly pessimistic," but B. Riley says robust political ad spending in 2022 should "put a higher floor" under near-term earnings. Bad news is now "more than priced in," analyst Daniel Day suggests, noting that the stock is trading at a free cash flow yield of 41%, the highest among all radio and even comparable legacy media stocks. Traditional AM/FM radio advertising is still facing long-term secular headwinds, with ads increasingly flowing to digital alternatives. But "we believe it's a mistake to consider the pressures any more severe than those facing comparable industries (e.g. retrans/affiliate fees for broadcast/cable TV potentially entering decline

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Audacy gains 5% as B. Riley upgrades with bad news 'priced in'