Until one week ago, Beasley Media Group stock hovered near the $2 mark, with small fluctuations seen across much of December 2021 and into the first half of January 2022.
This seemed to be a stabilization point for the company’s shares, which began a downtrend to start the fourth quarter of 2021. With Beasley poised to release its Q4 and full-year 2021 fiscal results within the next 2 weeks, BBGI is showing particular weakness on the Nasdaq market. As of midday Wednesday, a new 52-week low was taking shape.
At the Closing Bell, a 1-cent gain was eked out.
Discounting the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled Wall Street dips of fall 2020, Beasley shares are now at their most fragile point since the “Great Recession” of 2009.
With very light trading volume, BBGI as of 11:35am Eastern was priced at $1.79 per share.
But, by the time the Closing Bell came, BBGI was in positive territory, gaining 1 cent to $1.82. Still, that’s not something investors may be cheering about.
By comparison, BBGI was at $2.05 one year ago and has a 52-week high of $3.42, Yahoo! Finance data show. It’s 52-week low? It is being seen right now.
Compared to its peers, Beasley’s share price is seeing considerable strain from ongoing concerns tied to the pandemic, revenue growth and dollars tied to its eSports investment in an Overwatch League franchise.
Cumulus Media, which is also trading on light volume, was priced at $10.54 per share as of 11:11am Eastern and is up from $8.68 one year ago. It’s 52-week high is $14.11, seen in June 2021.
Saga Communications, which saw steady declines for its shares between April 2017 and October 2020, has seen its shares stabilize over the last year.
Audacy Corp., which like Beasley has seen struggles with its publicly traded stock, is presently in recovery mode from a January 24 low of $2.24 and was up to $2.3750 as of 11:39am Eastern. One year ago, AUD was at $4.65.
That said, Beasley and Audacy have very different advertiser profile stories. The latter is overexposed compared to its peers in the shaky automotive sector. For Beasley, which trimmed its net loss in Q3, CEO Caroline Beasley concluded a 19-minute third quarter earnings call by noting that “some of our advertisers” are seeing some impact due to supply chain issues.
As such, “delayed ad spend” is likely. And, Caroline Beasley said, there’s “more to come on that.” This suggests that lower ad dollars in some categories will be seen in Q4, painting a grey portrait for the company as it prepares to issue its fiscal report card for the last three months, and for the full year, of 2021.
