Warner Bros. upgraded to Peer Perform from Underperform at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Peer Perform from Underperform without a price target Though the firm expects linear’s decline to weigh on Warner’s cash flow for years to come, it says Max’s leverage to the industry’s re-bundling and partnership trends create a plausible path to stable total company EBITDA. Max’s international acceleration, direct-to-consumer’s inflection to meaningful profitability, and growing appetite by traditional TV distributors to carry streaming services and linear nets should provide Warner with free cash flow to paydown debt and invest in its healthier businesses, the analyst tells investors in a research note.