Viacom, Inc. (VIA)
- 37.01 (USD)
(+0.1 %)
9/3/2010 4:00:00 PM
VIA Stock Report
NYSE:
VIA
37.01
(USD)
(0.1 %
)
09/03 4:00 PM
Open
37.05
Day's Range
36.71
-
37.43
52Wk Range
25.54 - 41.79
Mkt Cap
22.0 Billion
Vol/Avg
91400/51,645
Div/Yield
0.00%
Key Fundamentals
| Price (9/3/2010) | 37.01 |
|---|---|
| Volume (9/3/2010) | 91400 |
| Last Close Price | 37.01 |
| 10 Day Average Volume | 51,645 |
| 13 Week Price Range | 34.09 - 40.17 |
| 52 Week Price Range | 25.54 - 41.79 |
| LTM Revenue | 13.5 Billion |
| Shares Outstanding (12/31/2009) | 608.2 Million |
| Market Capitalization | 22.0 Billion |
| Shares Held By Institutions | 157,644 |
| Institutional Holders | 72 |
| % Shares Held By Institutions | 1.53% |
| Earnings Per Share (EPS) | 2.65 |
| P/E Ratio | 12.3916 |
| Book Value Per Share | 15.0274 |
| Gross Margin | 46.98% |
| Annual Dividend | 0 |
| Dividend Yield | 0.00% |
| Beta | 1.12345 |
| Fiscal Year Ends | December |
About Viacom, Inc.
Viacom, Inc.is considered to operate in the Media sector. They specifically operate in the CATV Systems business segment contained within the CATV Systems industry.
Viacom Inc. was organized as a Delaware corporation in 2005. The Company including its consolidated subsidiaries is a leading global entertainment content Company, engaging audiences on television, motion picture, Internet, mobile and video game platforms through many of the world's best known entertainment brands. Viacom operates through two reporting segments: Media Networks, which includes MTV Networks ("MTVN") and BET Networks ("BETN"); and Filmed Entertainment. The Media Networks segment provides entertainment content for consumers in key demographics attractive to advertisers, content distributors and retailers. The Filmed Entertainment segment produces, finances and distributes motion pictures and other entertainment content under the Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies brands. The Filmed Entertainment segment also continues to release certain pictures under the DreamWorks brand. It also acquires films for distribution and has distribution relationships with third parties. MTV Networks reaches over 640 million households in more than 160 countries worldwide via its approximately 170 channels and multiplatform properties, which include MTV: Music Television (r), VH1(r), CMT(r): Country Music Television (tm), Logo(r), Nickelodeon(r), Nick at Nite(r), Nick Jr. (r), TeenNick(r), COMEDY CENTRAL(r), Spike TV(r) and TV Land(r), among others. It produces and distributes television programming, motion pictures and other entertainment content under some of the world's best known entertainment brands, many of which are household names worldwide. MTV Networks and BET Networks compete for advertising revenue with other cable and broadcast television networks, online and mobile outlets, radio programming and print media. Its businesses are subject to and affected by regulations of U.S. federal, state and local governmental authorities, and its international operations are subject to laws and regulations of local countries and pan-national bodies such as the European Union.
Ockham's Rating/Recommendation Summary
Rating specific information requires Premium Access.Buy Now or Learn More about Ockham's Features and Services
VIA Revenue
As a value investing shop, we are interested in seeing how VIA's revenues measure up against past performances. One easily understandable way of doing that is to compare Price to Sales per share levels over a given time frame. Assuming it is available, Ockham prefers to look at ten years of history (for this stock there are 6 years of history available) and we weigh recent years more heavily. This allows us to find weighted average historical high and low Price to Sales ratios, which give us a better idea of the stock's current underlying value. Using this method, we have established a high range for Price to Sales of 2.02x and the low end of the range at 1.20x.
With respect to these historically rational metrics, notice that the current Price to Sales per share ratio for VIA of 1.68x is somewhat above its historical average. As such, the current Price to Sales ratio suggests a neutral share price forecast. In order for us to become more positive about VIA we would need to see a drop in the Price to Sales ratio of 4% given current sales per share levels in order to return to its historical weighted average.
VIA Cash Earnings
As the old saying goes, "Cash is King!" We look at reported Cash Earnings, but the main emphasis of our analysis involves stripping out non-cash events such as depreciation from our cash earnings analysis. This helps us view the cash flows more clearly. Nevertheless, an analysis of Cash Earnings (both reported and otherwise) is absolutely pivotal to assessing a company's value, and currently VIA is below its historical average multiple of cash earnings as calculated by Ockham. Similar to our analysis of sales per share, Ockham looks at the last 6 years of cash earnings levels for VIA to identify where the current high and low price levels have been historically in relation to profit per share. Again, we utilize a weighted average methodology which relies more heavily on recent years of data. This weighted average framework provides us with an average high Price to Cash Earnings ratio per share of 18.83 and a 10.50 low over the same period.
With a historical average Cash Earnings ratio of 14.67, the current Cash Earnings ratio of 13.86 is a positive opportunity for value in the Ockham view. Naturally, we would love to see a deeper value opportunity for VIA, but to get there one of two things must occur (or both). Either the stock price must decline further to increase the long term buying opportunity, or the management at VIA needs to earn more cash. If either, or both, of these occur, then we could see a significant gap emerge between what investors were willing to pay for in the past, and where VIA is trading currently (latest close price of 36.43).
VIA Dividends
When determining a company's future prospects for success, Ockham Research sees analysis of dividend payments as a key additional factor. Even though it isn't imperative for VIA to shell out a dividend in order to receive a positive rating, it can be helpful to further our analysis. While we do like to see companies with healthy and growing dividends, it is not appropriate for all companies, especially those focused on growth. In this regard, we regard VIA as neutral because we do not have historical data for this company's dividends. We will being incorporating this into our analysis as soon as that data is available.