Premium TV company Starz is set to start trading as a separate company on Monday, and investors seemed pleased at the prospect, bidding shares of parent company Liberty Media 1 percent higher Friday to a 52-week high of $124.03. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wall Street is wondering what the firm will focus its content spending on, and it's debating if and when Starz might seek a buyer. <\/p>\n
John Malone's Liberty Media made it official late Friday, saying it has formally split Starz from the rest of its operations. Technically speaking, Liberty spun itself out to leave Starz behind as a standalone entity. And Monday, shares of Starzwill begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbols STRZA and STRZB. <\/p>\n
Maxim Group analyst John Tinker initiated coverage of Starz shares with a \"buy\" rating and $21 price target this week. \"Looking for the Al Jazeera of pay cable?\" he said in the headline of his research report, a reference to the $500 million that Al Jazeera will pay to acquire Current TV. <\/p>\n
\"Starz could be underpriced, in our opinion, as many investors may not be interested in a low-growth asset competing in a Netflix-type of world,\" Tinker wrote. \"With this spinout, Liberty is positioning Starz in order to sell it.\" <\/p>\n
But the analyst also highlighted some of his concerns. <\/p>\n
\"Disney has sold its theatrical movies to Netflix starting in 2016 rather than extend its Starz contract, Comcast Universal just re-signed with Time Warner's HBO, News Corp.'s Fox re-upped with HBO last year, CBS' Showtime has the hot product with Homeland, and Starz needs to produce a hit other than Spartacus,\" Tinker said. <\/p>\n
Analysts also have wondered if Starz will pay enough to keep its other film output deal with Sony after losing Disney, or if it will redirect the saved cash into original programming. <\/p>\n
\"The primary risk to our price target is that Starz may need to invest more in risky and expensive original programming to make itself more attractive to a potential buyer,\" Tinker said. <\/p>\n
\"On the positive side, Starz has 17 channels with 55 million subscribers and generates $443 million operating cash flow,\" Tinker said. \"It has long-term cable carriage contracts, has theatrical pay TV rights from Disney until 2016 and Sony Columbia until 2017, and it has a solid management team with CEO Chris Albrecht at the helm, as well as some successful original shows, such as Magic City.\" <\/p>\n
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Liberty Media Splits From Starz; Analysts Generally Bullish<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Premium TV company Starz is set to start trading as a separate company on Monday, and investors seemed pleased at the prospect, bidding shares of parent company Liberty Media 1 percent higher Friday to a 52-week high of $124.03. Meanwhile, Wall Street is wondering what the firm will focus its content spending on, and it's debating if and when Starz might seek a buyer Continue reading