Well, things are getting tight at entertainment giant Paramount (PARA) as a new report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that Paramount made its opening offer to get President Trump to walk away from the lawsuit. The offer was for $15 million, and Trump has turned it down. The move had an unexpectedly positive effect on shareholders, though, who sent shares up fractionally in the closing minutes of Thursday’s trading.
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The reports note that the offer is not exactly far off; Trump’s team is apparently willing to settle for $25 million and an apology from CBS News, which given what we have heard out of CBS News and those watching so far, might be the toughest part to get. In fact, reports note that the Trump team is already looking to fire up a completely separate second lawsuit around “bias of its news coverage.” The Trump team has until this Wednesday to respond.
A mediation session was expected to carry on today, so we may well find out tomorrow if there is any further advancement of the suit. Moreover, Shari Redstone has already recused herself from negotiations with the Trump team, as concerns about a settlement being considered a bribe by insurance companies remains. Some legal analysts, however, are quite convinced that that cannot be the case.
A Closer Look from the Trump Team
Then, in perhaps the biggest surprise of all, word came out around the Trump team’s response to the lawsuits, noting that the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris caused the president “mental anguish.” It also, apparently, caused that same mental anguish to a range of other consumers as well.
Trump lawyers also asserted that “…the First Amendment is no shield to news distortion,” which attempts to address one of Paramount lawyers’ primary defense vectors. Further, Paramount already attempted to protect against charges of news distortion by releasing an “unedited transcript” of the Harris interview which, lawyers argued, proved the newscast “…was not doctored or deceitful.”
Is Paramount Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on PARA stock based on two Buys, seven Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 2.28% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PARA price target of $12.20 per share implies 0.33% upside potential.
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