Why Paramount (PARA) Stock Is Down Today

What Happened?

Shares of multinational media and entertainment corporation Paramount (NASDAQ:PARA) fell 6.5% in the afternoon session after Needham advised investors to “move to the sidelines” due to uncertainty surrounding its upcoming merger with Skydance Media. The investment firm Needham reiterated its “Hold” rating, pointing to a lack of clarity on the company's ownership, leadership, and strategy following its merger with Skydance Media. This warning followed Paramount's mixed second-quarter results where revenues missed expectations. 

Adding to the negative sentiment, Wells Fargo & Company also lowered its price target on the stock from $12.00 to $10.00. The company's recent financial report highlighted underlying weakness, as its traditional TV division's revenue dropped and the Paramount+ streaming service lost subscribers.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Paramount’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 4 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 11 months ago when the stock dropped 6.3% on the news that reports that Edgar Bronfman Jr (media mogul) withdrew his bid (valued at $6 billion) to acquire the company. The bid was meant to challenge the offer from Skydance Media and suggest a potential bidding competition, which would have likely raised PARA's final sale price, won't happen.

Paramount is up 3.7% since the beginning of the year, but at $10.98 per share, it is still trading 17.5% below its 52-week high of $13.30 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Paramount’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $408.14.

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