VIACA - Citi adds to analyst chorus turning constructive on ViacomCBS

Citi has turned constructive on ViacomCBS ([[VIAC]] -1.3%, [[VIACA]] -1.4%), a stock recently pummeled in the Archegos Capital collapse - adding to a swath of upgrades for the shares in recent weeks. It's upgrading to Buy from Neutral, pointing to three reasons, including that the company likely has up to $4.6B in capital to accelerates its "digital pivot," with the pending sale of Publishing augmented by a first-quarter capital raise. Also, benchmarking content spending vs. digital subscriptions indicates some room for ViacomCBS to top Street subscriber estimates. "Established digital video firms – like Netflix (NFLX) or Disney (DIS) – are gliding toward $100 of total content spend (digital plus linear) per streaming sub," analyst Jason Bazinet writes. "ViacomCBS is well above this level suggesting digital sub growth may accelerate as content outlays are directed toward digital." And it doesn't have a demanding multiple - akin to 7x 2023 EV/EBITDA, or

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Citi adds to analyst chorus turning constructive on ViacomCBS