Wall Street analysts believe the proposed Warner Bros. Discovery deal could fetch between $21 and $30 per share. Media and Streaming announced on Tuesday that it was considering all options for a sale or part-sale after receiving “unsolicited interest” from multiple potential buyers. As a result, the company is considering splitting its streaming and studio operations and global news network into two separate entities. However, a complete sale is currently being formally considered. Both Netflix and Comcast are among the interested buyers, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. Warner Bros. Discovery also asked the newly merged Paramount Skydance to offer $20 a share, but the offer was rejected as too low, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Last month, amid growing rumors that all of Warner Bros. could be put up for sale, analysts told clients they had a price target for the company and said the stock was now higher than it was in Tuesday’s trading. Shares were last up 11% on Tuesday, at just over $20 a share. With takeover offers likely to come from corporations and private equity in the coming weeks, here’s what analysts are saying about the potential deal price. Bank of America analyst Jessica Ehrlich raised her price target to $24 from $16 in late September. “We believe that WBD’s streaming and studio assets as a separate entity will trigger a bidding war among potential buyers. Therefore, we believe we can capture the greatest potential value by separating the company,” she wrote. “At a takeaway valuation (20x streaming and studio assets), we estimate that the consolidated WBD entity is worth approximately $30 per share or more,” Ehrlich said, adding that he believes the market continues to undervalue the Discovery Global business. The analyst also suggested private equity firms as potential buyers, but said this would be an “unlikely” option. Wells Fargo Last week, Wells Fargo raised its price target to $21 per share, accounting for the possibility of an additional bid from Paramount Skydance. Analyst Stephen Cahall believes Paramount Skydance is interested in acquiring all of Warner Bros. Discovery, and that subsequent offers “could be as high as the low $20s per share and hostile (aka public).” Meanwhile, other bidders, including perhaps Netflix, Apple, Comcast and Amazon, are likely only interested in Warner’s streaming and studio businesses, analysts said. Moffett Nathanson In late September, analyst Robert Fishman raised his price target by $9 to $23 to “reflect the high likelihood of a PSKY bid and other potential bidders.” Fishman wrote that despite improved scale with the combination of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, both companies will still lag behind their major competitors. KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel said Tuesday that a purchase price of $20 to $24 per share appears “fair.” The analyst added that Comcast’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would be negative for the former. “While CMCSA’s balance sheet is strong, CMCSA will likely end up in a potential bidding war for the streaming platforms and studios it already owns,” he wrote. Bernstein Bernstein analyst Laurent Yun predicted in September that the potential value was $20 to $25 per share, although he cautioned that this was based on synergies with Paramount Skydance. Yun noted that Warner Bros. could do the deal, in whole or in part, and that Paramount Skydance was a strategic buyer with “potential for meaningful synergies.” He also wrote that the Warner Bros. acquisition is critical to the future viability of Paramount Skydance. “In our view, without access to large amounts of high-quality content, we are less optimistic about the standalone future of PSKY. WBD effectively solves PSKY’s content challenges, and there are no comparable alternatives,” he said. Morgan Stanley In September, Morgan Stanley saw a $22 per share bull run. Analyst Benjamin Swinburne wrote that synergy assumptions in a hypothetical deal proposal could reach $5 billion, which could support a proposal in the $22-$27 range. He said this would still be within the historical trading range for media stocks, which is between 8 and 9 times EV/EBITDA. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. (Learn the best strategies for 2026 from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others on CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and information here.)
