It might be hard to accept that Wall Street has an interest in streaming beyond what brokers and analysts watch when they get home at night. But since so many streamers are publicly traded, there’s a clear benefit to tracking them and how they approach a market. And right now, many of the biggest names in streaming are down in Wednesday afternoon’s trading. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Disney (NYSE:DIS), Paramount (NASDAQ:PARA), and Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) are all down fractionally in the session, while Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is up nearly 2% on its previously-announced layoff plans. The key point that Wall Street wants out of Hollywood this year is an old, familiar tune: profitability.
While the movies have made much out of pursuing socially-uplifting themes—in at least some cases to the detriment of their stories, according to some viewers—Wall Street wants to see butts back in seats and wallets shelling out cash to see the latest and greatest. While streaming has proven its ability technically, it hasn’t exactly done so well in terms of proving it can make money the way the old models of physical media sales did. And most of the pack is on its back feet, trying to recover from a glut of spending on content in a bid to get viewers in the door.
A (Once Again) Changing Market
If there’s one thing that the latest round of Hollywood strikes revealed, it’s that the business model needs serious updating. Because, right now, it’s broken, and to a degree that may be unsustainable. Streaming delivered an incredible promise of being able to watch just about anything at any time. Viewers abandoned linear television in droves for it. But now, the studios are discovering that the remarkable profits Netflix originally generated were when there was a lot less competition involved.
Content is fracturing at an unsustainable rate. Studios are considering bundling with other studios just to keep prices down and subscribers subscribing. No matter what comes next, something has to be done, lest investors pull out of the whole concept altogether.
Which Streaming Stocks are a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, the clear leader among the biggest streaming stocks is WBD stock. With an average price target of $16.40, this Moderate Buy-rated stock offers 49.77% upside potential. Meanwhile, the laggard in the list is PARA stock, as this Moderate Sell-rated stock can only offer 1.06% upside potential against its average price target of $14.27.
