Thursday's Biggest Stock Mover: Clouds Part For Cumulus Media On Strong Q3 Outlook

The cloud is over the moon, as Cumulus Media Inc CMLS shares have soared Thursday in reaction to its positive preannouncement.

The shares, which have lost about 47.1 percent in the year-to-date period, are now at the highest level since May 31.

At the time of writing, shares of Cumulus Media were up 71.90 percent at 52.6 cents on over 75 times their average volume.

Cumulus Media has been a victim of both fundamental weakness and sector-wide negative sentiment toward media stocks in the Trump era. The stock was cut in half in the sessions following a legal setback in late-February.

A U.S. judge rejected the company's refinancing plan, which would have helped it to trim its staggering debt load.

The stock fell further following its fourth-quarter earnings miss announced on March 3 and bottomed at 23 cents on April 25. Although the stock staged a recovery, it never took off amid talks of looming delisting and bankruptcy.

See also: Media Stock Q3 Earnings On Tap: Comcast, Charter, Shaw, Time Warner

On Thursday, Cumulus Media released preliminary third-quarter results, expecting net revenues of $286 million to $288 million and bottom line in the range of a loss of $300,000 to a profit of $1.7 million.

Analysts, on average, expect a loss of 20 cents per share on revenues of $281.03 million.

Cumulus Media said it expects adjusted EBITDA in the range of $60 million to $62 million, up 3-6 percent year over year.

"The strong preliminary results for the third quarter provide further evidence that our turnaround plan is taking hold. We are encouraged by our continuing operating and financial momentum in the face of negative industry trends," Mary Berner, president and CEO, said.

"This quarter, we delivered our seventh straight quarter of ratings share growth at the station group along with revenue share gains for our fifth straight quarter at the station group and third straight quarter at Westwood One. Most importantly, it was the second straight quarter of year-over-year growth in revenue and Adjusted EBITDA."

The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter results at 7:30 a.m. ET Nov. 9.At time of publication, shares of Cumulus were up 69.97 percent at $0.53.

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Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidancePreviewsMoversTechTrading Ideas
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