Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 4 stocks made the list for top value stocks in the Media industry. Those looking for value stocks to add to their portfolio may want to use this list as a starting point for further investment research.

Why Focus on Undervalued Media Stocks?

Value investors seek to buy stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value. Long-term returns show that such strategies are advantageous. Value stocks, as a group, tend to outperform growth stocks over extended periods of time. Typically, value investors perform financial analysis of numerous metrics, don’t follow the herd and are long-term investors.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade is derived from a stock’s Value Score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

What Goes Into AAII’s Value Grade?

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data as well as the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movement. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors with that task.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A–F grades for more than just value. It is possible for a stock to appear cheap based on one valuation metric but appear expensive on another. It is also possible for one valuation ratio to be associated with outperforming stocks during certain periods of time but not others. Some stocks may even have null values for certain metrics like the price-earnings ratio or the price-to-book ratio but not others. An example of this would be a company with losses instead of profits or a negative book value because of heavy borrowing. Negative earnings or book value result in non-meaningful ratios that are left blank or null.

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4 Undervalued Media Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 4 undervalued stocks in the Media industry for Tuesday, November 19, 2024. Let’s take a closer look at their individual scores to see how they measure up against each other and the Media industry median.

The Value Grade is assigned based on how each stock’s composite valuation compares to all other stocks.

The process for assigning grades starts with each variable for a given stock. The percentile rankings for all valid ratios that a stock has are calculated. So, for instance, a stock could have a price-to-book ranking in the 43rd percentile, a price-earnings ranking in the 67th percentile, a price-to-sales ranking in the 23rd percentile, etc. Then, those rankings are averaged for each stock. (A minimum of two valid variables are required, though all six will be used if available.)

Once the average of the individual variables is calculated, that average is ranked against all stocks. Put another way, each stock’s composite valuation is compared to all other stocks. These ranks are then sorted into quintiles from the cheapest 20% (a grade of A) to the most expensive 20% (a grade of F).

As always, we recommend that you conduct proper due diligence and research before investing in any security. We also suggest that investors utilize numerous grades, not just value, when it comes to deciding whether a company is a good fit for their allocation needs.

Criteo S.A.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company’s Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company’s technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Criteo S.A. has a Value Score of 72, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at Criteo S.A.’s price-to-sales ratio at 1.04 compared to the industry median at 0.62, this company has a higher price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make Criteo S.A.’s stock less attractive for value investors.

Criteo S.A.’s price-earnings ratio is 22.40 compared to the industry median at 13.40. This means it has a higher share price relative to earnings compared to its peers. This could make Criteo S.A. less attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess Criteo S.A.’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 7.1, when compared to the industry median of 9.9, the company may be considered undervalued in relation to its peers. Value investors could use the enterprise multiple to identify stocks that are considered overvalued or undervalued relative to their industry.

Shareholder yield is the sum of a stock’s dividend yield (paid over previous 12 months minus special dividends) and the percentage of net share buybacks over the previous 12 months. Criteo S.A.’s shareholder yield is higher than its industry median ratio of (0.10%). Value investors may look for an attractive shareholder yield because it can be a powerful tool for identifying if the company has a good management team.

As one of the most common value metrics, the price-to-book ratio evaluates a company’s current market price relative to its book value. Criteo S.A.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its industry median ratio of 1.38. This could make Criteo S.A. less attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Lastly, let’s take a look at Criteo S.A.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio (P/FCF), which can indicate a company’s market value relative to its operating cash flow. Criteo S.A.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio is higher than its industry median ratio of 11.30. This could make Criteo S.A. fairly attractive because the higher P/FCF ratio indicates that Criteo S.A. is undervalued. The P/FCF ratio metric can also be viewed over a long-term time frame to see if the company's cash flow to share price value is generally improving or worsening.

Gray Television, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Gray Television, Inc., a television broadcasting company, owns and/or operates television stations and digital assets in the United States. It also broadcasts secondary digital channels affiliated to ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, as well as various other networks and program services, including CW Plus Network, MY Network, the MeTV Network, Circle, Telemundo, THE365, and Outlaw; and local news/weather channels in various markets. It owns and operates television stations and digital assets that serve television markets in the United States. The company was formerly known as Gray Communications Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Gray Television, Inc. in August 2002. Gray Television, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Gray Television, Inc. has a Value Score of 98, which is considered to be undervalued.

Gray Television, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 5.0 compared to the industry median at 13.4. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Gray Television, Inc. more attractive for value investors.

Gray Television, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Gray Television, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.38.

You can read more about Gray Television, Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

iHeartMedia, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

iHeartMedia, Inc. operates as an audio media company in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Multiplatform Group, Digital Audio Group, and Audio & Media Services Group. The Multiplatform Group segment offers broadcast radio stations, sponsorship and events, and live and virtual events; and operates Premiere Networks, a national radio network that produces, distributes, or represents syndicated radio programs and services to radio station affiliates. It also delivers real-time traffic flow and incident information, and weather updates, sports, and news. The Digital Audio Group segment provides podcasting, digital sites, newsletters, digital services, and programs; and iHeartRadio, a mobile app and web based service for radio stations, digital only stations, custom artist stations, and podcasts. The Audio and Media Services Group segment engages in the media representation business; and provides scheduling and broadcast software and services. This segment also provides RCS, a cloud and on-premises broadcast software, such as radio and television automation, music scheduling, newsroom automation, advertising sales management, disaster recovery solutions; and real-time audio recognition technology to radio and television stations, cable channels, record labels, advertisers, and agencies, as well as media streaming and research services. The company was formerly known as CC Media Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to iHeartMedia, Inc. in September 2014. The company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

iHeartMedia, Inc. has a Value Score of 85, which is considered to be undervalued.

You can read more about iHeartMedia, Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. provides augmented reality (AR) based holographic services and products in China. It operates in three segments: AR Advertising Services, AR Entertainment, and Semiconductor Related Products and Services. The company primarily offers holographic AR advertising services and holographic AR entertainment products. Its holographic AR advertising software enables users to insert into video footages real or animated three-dimensional objects; and online holographic AR advertising solution embeds holographic AR ads into films and shows. The company’s holographic AR entertainment products consist primarily of payment middleware software, game distribution platform, and holographic mixed reality software. In addition, it engages in the provision of central processing algorithm services, and provides computer chip products to enterprise customers, as well as sells comprehensive solutions for central processing algorithms and related services with software and hardware integration. Further, the company’s holographic AR technologies are used in software engineering, content production, cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, it provides hardware performance optimization and software algorithm optimization services to online game developers and game distributors. The company serves a range of industries, including manufacturing, real estate, entertainment, technology, media and telecommunications, travel, education, and retail. WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. has a Value Score of 93, which is considered to be undervalued.

WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.38.

You can read more about WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Other Media Stock Grades

Value is just one of the five Stock Grades included in our A+ Investor service. AAII members can see the top-graded stocks—those with grades of A or B for value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality—on the A+ Stock Grades Screener.

Also, if you want full access to all of AAII’s premium services, you can subscribe to one convenient bundled plan called AAII Platinum where you can try out A+ Investor, AAII Dividend Investing, the Stock Superstars Report, Growth Investing and VMQ Stocks. With the other premium services, you can dive deep into additional metrics, portfolios, commentary and information about Media stocks as well as other industrys.

Choosing Which of the 4 Best Media Stocks Is Right for You

Choosing which value stocks to invest in will ultimately depend on your individual goals and allocation; however, comparing similar value stocks in the same industry can help you analyze which might be better investments for you in the long run. So, let’s take a look at the Value Grade for all of our stocks.

• Criteo S.A. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Gray Television, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• iHeartMedia, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 4 undervalued stocks in the Media industry as well as their overall grades, it’s time for you to conduct additional research to see if these could fit your portfolio needs based on your goals and risk tolerance. AAII can help you figure out both and identify which investments align with what works best for you.

We do so through a program of education that teaches you to invest for yourself and become an effective manager of your own wealth—no more relying on others for your financial independence. You can rely on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis that makes you a better investor.

A+ Investor adds to that qualitative teaching by giving you a powerful data suite that helps you whittle down investment decisions to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Additional Resources About Media Stocks

Want to learn more about Media stocks to see if they could be the right investment for you? Check out some additional resources and articles to help you on your financial journey.

• 4 Undervalued Media Stocks for Tuesday, November 19
• 4 Undervalued Media Stocks for Monday, November 18
• 6 Undervalued Media Stocks for Friday, November 15
• 3 Undervalued Media Stocks for Thursday, November 14

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.