Todd Juenger, formerly head of TiVo's Audience Research business, has joined Sanford Bernstein as a senior analyst covering U.S. media companies.
The firm has initiated coverage on seven media stocks: CBS, Discovery Communications, Nielsen, News Corp., Time Warner Inc., Viacom and Walt Disney Co.
Juenger has assigned "outperform" ratings to Disney (target price $50 per share) and Discovery ($55). He rates four companies "market perform" -- CBS (target $29 per share), Nielsen ($28), News Corp. ($21) and Viacom ($50) -- while Time Warner is designated "underperform" with a target price of $36 per share.
In a research report issued Tuesday, Juenger wrote that like many other Wall Street analysts he's generally bullish on large-cap media companies.
"As technology has unleashed fierce competition for customers among video service providers (old and new), content owners have benefitted from increased demand and end-user value across their fresh and library content," Juenger wrote. "As billions of middle-class households emerge around the world, pay-TV, advertising, and box office attendance follows. It seems the digital revolution, instead of spelling doom for large cap media, now has many believing it will rain newfound money for years to come."
But he added that "not all will benefit equally," pointing to Discovery and Disney as best positioned and Time Warner as least well positioned.
Prior to TiVo, where he worked from 2005 to 2011, Juenger spent nearly 20 years at companies including Procter & Gamble, McKinsey, Primedia and Cerberus Capital.
