A 6 1/2-Year Rewind For Two Radio Company Stocks

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What do Saga Communications and Entercom have in common? Not much, actually.


Now, unfortunately, they are linked on Wall Street as two radio broadcasting companies suffering their biggest stock slump since Barack Obama was in the midst of his successful reelection campaign.

In morning trading on Wednesday, Saga was up 69 cents, to $30.99 — a much-needed jump on very light trading volume of 1,713 shares.

Average volume for Saga is just 4,359 shares, but the radio industry pure-play has generally been one of the business’ strongest performers on Nasdaq.

That said, Saga opened Wednesday’s trading at a price not seen since July 2012.

It’s been a particularly hard month for Saga shareholders, with SGA trading at $37.10 on Nov. 26. Further, Saga had been above $38 from early April through mid-June.

It started 2018 at $41.20, and on April 1, 2017 soared to $51.25.

That culminated a 1 1/2-year period full of big jumps and small dips that brought Saga from $33.61 in September 2015.

Now, Saga is in even shakier shape than back then.

Then, there is Entercom. On light volume of 320,032 shares, ETM shares at 11:50 am Eastern were flat at $5.42.

This latest dip puts Entercom at a level last seen in May 2012, and in a position that could surpass 2011 dips into the low-$5 range.

If that happens, Entercom would wind up at a price not seen since it began climbing out of the depths of the Great Recession, in August 2009. At the time, ETM was priced at $4.90.

It was just $0.67 in October 2008. Five years earlier, it was $45.81 per share.

Entercom’s 1-year target estimate is $8.25. Until May 1, that seemed very possible.

Now, it stands out as a sign that the company that purchased CBS Radio has yet to monetize the biggest of those properties, with signs that stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago still have a way to go to be restored following much neglect under its previous owner.