Analyst: Paramount at Risk of Advertising Downturn

Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) stock is down 1.4% to trade at $16.24 this morning, following a bear note from Wolfe Research. The firm downgraded PARA to "underperform" form "peer perform" with a $14 price target, citing the potential risk of a significant downturn in TV advertising. 

Wolfe Research isn't the first analyst to move against Paramount stock. Just yesterday, Guggenheim cut its price target to $21 from $23. The security's 12-month consensus price target of $18.56 is a 15% premium to last night's close, while 15 of 21 covering analysts call PARA a "hold" or worse. 

It looks like options traders are betting on a bottom. Already today, 22,000 calls have been exchanged, which is double the intraday average volume. Most popular by far is the July 17.50 call. 

On the charts, Paramount stock's 50-day moving average continues to act as a layer of resistance, as it has since the equity's early May, post-earnings bear gap. Today's drop is contributing to PARA's 4% year-to-date deficit.