Cable stocks continued to regain ground Monday, with cable operators rising the most – perhaps on reports they reduced basic video subscriber losses by half in the second quarter – and programmers showing mixed results.
Cable stocks took a pounding last week on fears of cord-cutting and skinny bundles draining profits, with each major programmer losing at least 10% of its value at one point. While stocks lost about $60 billion in market cap over that period they started to claw back on Friday, with Viacom, AMC Networks and Fox all gaining ground.
As of Monday afternoon, Cable One had the biggest gain, rising as high as $436.05 per share (5%) before closing at $430.30 each, up $14.88 each or 3.6%. Cablevision Systems, which reported better than expected subscriber results Friday, rose as much as 4.4% ($1.13 each) to $26.95 on Monday before dipping slightly to close at $26.44, up 2.4%. Rounding out the operators, Charter Communications closed at $184.82, up 0.5%; Comcast cosed at $59.45, up 1.1% (63 cents) and Time Warner Cable closed at $189.33 up 0.2% (42 cents each).
Programmers also saw some gains, with Time Warner Inc., up 2.5% ($2.03) to close at $82.16; Viacom up 3.4% ($1.55) to $47.02; AMC Networks up 0.8% (60 cents) to $76.64; Discovery rose 11 cents to close at $29.55; Scripps Networks was up 41 cents (0.7%) to $59.17; and Disney up 1.5% ($1.65) to close at $111.
On the flip side, 21st Century Fox had a minusule decline, closing at $30.66 each, down 0.1%, or 3 cents per share.
