The Contrarian Case To Sell Cablevision Shares

• Shares of Cablevision Systems Corporation CVC have risen 33.92 percent year-to-date.
• Citi’s Jason B Bazinet has maintained a Sell rating and price target of $21 on Cablevision Systems,
• The stock has been moving,since May, based to a large extent on the market’s belief that the company will be sold.

In fact, “almost every recent inflection point in the stock has been based on management commentary or press reports regarding Cablevision’s ultimate fate,” Bazinet stated, while mentioning that in the absence of M&A, the fair value would be $18 per share, and if the company is sold, the stock would be worth $34 per share.

The current price of $28 per share puts a significant premium to the M&A. However, Bazinet believes that “this is one stock that is unlikely to trade sideways over the 12 months.”

While preferring to stick to his “contrarian view,” Bazinet said that there wasn’t any doubt that Cablevision systems would eventually be sold but unlike the Street view, he did not believe that Altice was the “obvious” acquirer.

According to the Citi report, Altice is likely to also be interesting in acquiring the remaining wireline assets of Verizon Communications, Inc. VZ, which are more compelling than Cablevision Systems.