MoffettNathanson upgraded shares of Paramount Global (PARA) to Neutral from Sell with a new price target of $13, up from $10 per share on Tuesday.
Analysts said in a note covering media stocks that consensus seems certain that the assets of at least two of Warner Bros, Discovery, or Paramount will emerge out of 2024 hitched together in one way or another.
"Speculation as to who's courting whom kicked off, of course, with the pre-Christmas meeting between Paramount CEO Bob Bakish and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to discuss a potential merger," the analysts noted.
"What form these three companies come to hold on the other side of this process is anyone's guess, but by diving into the components of each combination, we can start to assess who has what to gain, and from there, the likelihood of the different roads ahead," they added.
For PARA, the analysts said the stock has not traded fully on fundamentals for some time, and "those fundamentals remain bleak." However, the firm believes that if "the company is finally serious about pursuing either a full or partial sale of itself or its assets, one might be able to justify its current price on a sum-of-the-parts basis (even though we remain skeptical to underwrite this valuation)."