Benchmark Co. Sticks to Its Buy Rating for Nexstar

Benchmark Co. analyst Daniel Kurnos maintained a Buy rating on Nexstar (NASDAQ: NXST) today and set a price target of $94. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $63.15.

Kurnos noted:

“We think this addendum is critical and provides some much-needed perspective given the myopic focus on 1Q and 2Q core, which we think is largely recognized as soft in the marketplace at this point thanks to Auto and national, even if estimates are likely going to continue coming in over the next week. To that end, while we are reducing our 1H18 forecast, our 2018 and 2019 EBITDA projections remain unchanged. We note that NXST has a fairly good track record of buying back their own stock, and view the announcement as supportive of the current entry point. Given the well-documented challenges in the core marketplace, we are reducing our 1Q forecast to $288 million, down 2% y/y on a same-station basis ex-Olympics, and bringing our 2Q forecast to $325 million, down 1% y/y.”

According to TipRanks.com, Kurnos is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 8.7% and a 50.7% success rate. Kurnos covers the Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Inc, Sinclair Broadcast, and Zillow Group Inc.

Nexstar has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of $94.20.

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Based on Nexstar’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $654 million and quarterly net profit of $378 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $540 million and had a net profit of $6.05 million.

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Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is a television broadcasting and digital media company, which focuses on the acquisition, development and operation of television stations and interactive community websites & digital media services in the United States. The company provides services free over-the-air programming which includes programs produced by networks with which the stations are affiliated; programs that the stations produce; and first-run and rerun syndicated programs that the stations acquire. It also provides digital publishing and content management platforms to media publishers and advertisers. Nexstar Media Group was founded by Perry A. Sook in 1996 and is headquartered in Irving, TX.