Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) was lifted as high as $27.04 per share today, or up 8.73% from its closing price of $24.87 per share yesterday, on the back of FBN Securities initiating coverage on the stock with a rating of ‘Outperform’. As of writing, the stock is still up over 7% from its close yesterday. The bullish stance from FBN is opposite the stand of the last analyst firm which weighed in on the stock. Moffett Nathanson, in a note on June 25, reiterated its ‘Sell’ rating on the stock and downgraded its price target to $8 per share from $9 per share, about 70% beneath its current price, an uncharacteristically ultra-bearish sentiment from an analyst. Other analyst firms appear to agree with FBN, however, as Wunderlich, in a note to clients on June 16, increased its price target on the stock to $26 from $21. Wunderlich has a ‘Hold’ rating on CVC. The stock has climbed by 26.42% year-to-date while in the last 12 months, it has soared by 47.08%. Cablevision last reported earning in May, beating both on earnings and revenue for its first quarter. It reported adjusted earnings of $0.20 per share, on $1.61 billion in revenue. Wall Street was expecting an adjusted EPS of $0.17 on revenues of $1.61 billion.
The bullish FBN Securities note comes as hedge funds turned bearish on Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) during the first quarter. By March 31, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, up 16% from the previous quarter. The total value of their holdings decreased, however, by 24.37% to $550.4 million by the end of March from $727.75 million at the end of 2014. This blow is negated to an extent, nonetheless, by the fact that the stock declined 11.34% in the first quarter. Even so, the decrease in holdings value is certainly a bearish signal.
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As for insider transactions, which Insider Monkey also looks at, Cablevision insiders have not purchased any shares this year. The most recent sale, however, involved 180,000 shares and was made on June 4 by CEO James Lawrence Dolan.
With all of this in mind, let’s analyze the latest trading action encompassing Cablevision Systems Corporation.
