ITV Stock Hit By Merrill Lynch Downgrades
Shares in ITV companies began to fall this morning as analysts at Merrill Lynch cut their forecasts for the Network’s advertising revenues. Reports quote the broker as pulling back 2001 growth from -14.5% to -15.5%; 2002 figures are understood to have been revised from -2.0% to -2.5%.
Poor advance bookings for December are thought to be a major cause of the downgrades, with levels down 25% on last year; analysts had been expecting a decline of around 14%. As a result profits and earnings downgrades have fallen on Carlton Communications, Granada and SMG. Stock in all three fell in early trading this morning.
By 11:30am Carlton was down by 4p at 187žp, whilst Granada had begun to recover – down just 1ÂÂźp to 133žp; SMG was off by 4p at 105p – a modest decline, but still one of the heaviest falls on the FTSE250 this morning and is in contrast to the rest of the media sector which is currently improving on the markets.
