Oprah Winfrey Stock Portfolio: 5 Companies To Consider

4. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 61  

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) a media company, provides content across various distribution platforms. It is one of the top stocks to consider in the Oprah Winfrey stock portfolio. On October 24, Warner Bros. Discovery estimated that it will take on some $3.2 billion to $4.3 billion in pre-tax charges tied to restructuring its business. The company said that $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion of those charges are coming in its third quarter. The firm is on the list of companies to consider in the portfolio of Oprah Winfrey because it is reported that Oprah sold some of her stake in the Oprah Winfrey Network, a cable channel she owns, in late 2020 to Discovery in a deal rumored to be around $35 million that included stock options. 

On October 11, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar maintained an Equal Weight rating on Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) stock and lowered the price target to $15 from $17, noting that idiosyncratic variables result in widely varying Q3 trends across media companies as investor bias remains broadly negative.

At the end of the third quarter of 2022, 61 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $1.6 billion in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD), compared to 68 in the preceding quarter worth $2.3 billion. 

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Mayar Capital, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“We sold the last of our shares in Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) in early April. Luckily, we were able to sell the majority of our long-held holdings in the crazy run-up that accompanied the Archegos Capital debacle in early 2021. We did, however, rebuild a position in the stock when the stock went back down and this second go was disappointing.

We weren’t happy with the shift in strategy from the company’s core non-scripted and documentary content—where it commanded a leading position— into the wider media business it dived into with the Warner Media acquisition. We were also unhappy with the resulting increase in debt levels. It was time to take our money and walk away.”