Fox News Channel is losing viewers at an alarming rate… and analysts are warning investors to proceed with caution.
“Wells Fargo analysts downgraded shares of Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOXA) to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ on Monday, lowering the price target to $31 from $35 per share,” Investing.com reported Monday.
Wells Fargo isn’t alone. Other research analysts have also issued reports about Fox News. According to MarketBeat, Barclays cut the target price by $1 per share in April, Morgan Stanley cut it by $2 the following month, and Bank of America cut it by $8 on March 28.
Fox News suffered a decline in viewership in May after firing Tucker Carlson, the most viewed person in any cable news program with a solo host. During the previous few months, the network had become engulfed in scandal over a $787.5 million lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Additionally, Fox News can point to the declining fortunes of cable television as a whole.
Cable operators lost an estimated 9.9 of subscribers year-over-year as of March, SVB MoffettNathanson analyst told Variety in May. Comcast, cable TV’s largest business, reportedly lost 614,000 cable customers in a single quarter earlier this year.
However, Fox News is seeing a steeper decline than other cable networks… and even other cable news networks.
Until mid-June, Fox News spent 120 consecutive weeks as the most-watched network on cable news, according to Nielsen data reported by Mediaite. Then, one week in June, Fox averaged fewer primetime viewers than rival network MSNBC. Fox News broke a 120-week streak by coming in second.
The network has seen an especially dramatic decrease during primetime. Not only did it fall behind MSNBC, but also shed viewers to up-and-coming rival Newsmax.
The smaller, upstart network saw its audience grow 126 percent amid a 21 percent decline for Fox, according to Nielsen data obtained by Newsmax. The newer network also reportedly saw a 71 percent rise in total, daily viewership over a period of 15 percent decline for Fox News.
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