Broadcast media executive and avid mountain climber David Field, President/CEO of Entercom Communications, has something to celebrate: The company’s stock is on track to finish at its highest point in four months.
Will the momentum continue into 2020?
That’s expected, but to a limited extent, with a $6.25 1-year target price placed on ETM.
While that’s a far cry from where Entercom shares were prior to an April 2018 slip, following a first-half 2017 slide, it beats where ETM was in early October 2019, when it nearly crashed to $3 a share.
ETM finished Friday’s trading at $5.01, rising 3.1% from Thursday.
What’s fueling ETM is likely podcast industry growth in Q4, coupled with long-awaited turnarounds at former CBS Radio stations.
CFO Rich Schmaeling noted on Entercom’s Q3 earnings call that it expects its Q4 net revenue to climb by 2%-4% ex-political. This includes $10 million to $12 million of podcasting revenues from Pineapple Street Media and Cadence13.
“From the fourth quarter, we expect these podcasting businesses will be at about breakeven,” he said. “And in 2020, during our first full year of ownership, we expect them to grow rapidly and that they will be accretive to our 2020 earnings.”
