Business/Finance
Viacom lowered its 3Q outlook Fri, citing a decrease of approx 3% in domestic ad rev while intl ad rev grew approx 8%. Investors responded by pummeling the company’s shares down to $17.10 (-17%). And since the disclosure augers trouble ahead for cable programmers, many related stocks sank as well, including Discovery (-3.6%), Time Warner (-8.9%), Disney (-3.2%), News Corp (-8.1%), and Scripps Nets (-5.7%). Crown and Outdoor gained 28.8% and 1.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, most cable ops were pinched yet again, including Cablevision (-8%), Time Warner Cable (-6.4%), Comcast (-5.8) and Charter (-2.4). Mediacom rose 4.6%. — Sanford Bernstein upgraded DISH to ‘market perform’ from ‘underperform,’ and A.G. Edwards trimmed its price target for Outdoor to $18.75 from $21. — Collins Stewart‘s Tom Eagan has deemed Cablevision a "compelling stock to buy" again, noting that it’s trading below cable peers. "We expect CVC to continue to demonstrate the best balance of customer and financial growth among major cable operators," a note to clients said.