What Happened?
Shares of digital media company Ziff Davis (NASDAQ:ZD) fell 3.2% in the morning session after news of significant job cuts and a series of analyst downgrades soured investor sentiment. The digital media company planned to reduce its workforce by 12-15% at properties like IGN and CNET. This move happened despite a 4.5% increase in first-quarter revenue. However, the company's adjusted EBITDA, a key profit metric, decreased, and its free cash flow became negative, which sparked investor skepticism. Consequently, the stock touched a new 52-week low. Several analysts, including those at Citigroup and JPMorgan, reacted by lowering their price targets for Ziff Davis.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Ziff Davis? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Ziff Davis’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 13 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock dropped 5.8% on the news that a surprisingly weak U.S. jobs report was released, fueling concerns about a slowing economy. The U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs, falling significantly short of economists' expectations, while figures for May and June were revised down, erasing 258,000 previously reported jobs. The professional and business services industry itself shed 14,000 jobs. This data points to a cooling labor market, fueling concerns of a slowing economy. A weaker economic outlook often leads to reduced corporate spending on key services like IT consulting and professional staffing, which directly impacts the sector's revenue and growth prospects. The report immediately increased investor expectations of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Ziff Davis is down 45.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $29.84 per share, it is trading 50.3% below its 52-week high of $59.99 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Ziff Davis’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $502.36.
Do you want to know what moves the business you care about? Add them to your StockStory watchlist and every time a stock significantly moves, we provide you with a timely explanation straight to your inbox. It’s free and will only take you a second.