David Field, Entercom’s President/CEO, may be all smiles in this pic taken at the New York Stock Exchange.
But, the company’s stock is hemorrhaging following the early Tuesday release of less-than-satisfactory Q1 2018 results. With Wednesday’s close, ETM shares are at their lowest point since Q1 2013.
Entercom lost another 90 cents — a 10.4% decline — to enter after-hours trading on Wednesday at $7.75.
A massive 7.5 million shares were traded; normal trading volume is 2 million shares.
This puts Entercom shares at a level not seen since March 2013, and the company in a difficult position as Field and his deputies across the U.S. seek to quickly establish Entercom as a shining example of radio’s robust rebound.
A $12 million ding in Q1 due to problems at US Traffic Network (USTN) is a big reason for the stock swoon. But, ad revenue is challenged, and Field did not mention the status of his New York, Los Angeles or Chicago properties in his company’s Q1 earnings call on Tuesday.
Instead, Field stayed positive.
“Since closing, we’ve been hard at work implementing our extensive plans to propel growth through a series of meaningful tangible action steps across each of our primary growth drivers,” he said. “We’re making good progress and are on or ahead of schedule in essentially every aspect of our plans. We have built a terrific leadership team and are driving strong ratings growth, improving our sales organization and capabilities and launching a number of powerful revenue initiatives that will help drive future success. In summary, we’re happy with what we’ve accomplished to date.”
If one excludes the USTN adjustment, Entercom revenues would have been down 4%.
