ViacomCBS (VIAC-Q)

UNtil recently, this has been dead money. It hit lows just three weeks ago. It's a broken stock, but not a broken company. The business has a lot going for it and it's now the beginning of a rebound. It trades at 9x earnings and pays a 2.75% dividend. It's a value play at a time when investors want value (looking for companies with real earnings. The Archegos debacle is now past them though it scared off many investors. VIAC is trading cheaply under any metric and its business is getting much better. Its last 3 quarters have beaten sales and earnings, not blow-outs but better than expected. He's optimistic about next month's report, because of football. VIAC has rights to football rights on the weekends which should serve their next quarter well. (NFL viewership is up 10% YOY.) Beyond sports, the Viacom side owns a grab-bag of popular cable stations, like Paramount Networks (whose season 4 premiere of Yellowstone had 14.7 million viewers). Viacom's streamer, Paramount+, launched last year and already looks promising. VIAC has gotten its act together and will turn around.

It's okay. The whole industry is under assault though. It's merely okay. Well-run.