Was Jim Cramer’s Call Right on These 10 Stocks?

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

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD), the media conglomerate behind CNN, HBO, and Discovery Channel, was flagged by Cramer in that episode for its weak financials and poor earnings. He ranked it at the bottom of his media stock list back then:

“You know what’s not a good solid option though, sadly? Warner Brothers Discovery. I put this stock in third place five months ago purely out of respect, not fourth place because of the long-term track record of CEO David Zaslav and we care about long-term on the show. But it’s getting harder to see how he’s going to pull this rabbit out of a hat. Remember, all the old line media companies are up against the same set of challenges here but Warner needs to navigate these challenges with the worst balance sheet in the industry by far actually. […]

In short, it’s a Highwire act. The company needs to consistently put up strong numbers to outrun its debt maturities and interest payments. Sadly the most recent quarter did not have strong numbers with Warner Brothers missing expectations pretty much across the board. Best I can say about this one is that June 2 seems like a major success at this point. However, I can’t go positive on the stock until the balance sheet gets much more clean. And you have to respect that we do balance sheet analysis here and this is just not good. […]

Then at the bottom of the rankings I’m going to swap Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery to Paramount third. Warner Brothers got to go dead last. They’re both in not great shape but at least Paramount has takeover chatter; Warner Brothers doesn’t seem to have anything”

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBD) has risen by 30.69%, showing a surprising rebound despite Cramer’s skepticism.

Jim Cramer’s latest comments on WBD came on the 5^th of March, where he wondered whether the firm’s $20 billion debt pay down is one of the reasons behind the stock’s performance. He has also cited some optimism while talking about the CEO:

“And by the way, David as you’ve been not talking about, the resurrection of Warner Brothers. WBD. Look at that. Why did that . . .they liked the debt paydown?

“Look, uh stay the course. I think that David Zaslav would tell you that buried within that company is the number one studio in the world.”