$VSNT Versant Media Group Tape Reports
Per Ticker.id: $VSNT Versant Media Group Tape Reports — 2 podcast mentions across 2 podcasts (30 days), latest 2026-08-20 14:48 UTC.
it's Versant Media Group. That's the company that split off from NBC last year to run all of their cable networks.
Lon — This Week in Startups · Zuck's AI manifesto is a data center PR masterclass | E2323 · 2026-08-11It's no longer Comcast. It was Comcast. Now they're their own company called Versant Media. And they own CNBC.
Lon — This Week in Startups · Zuck's AI manifesto is a data center PR masterclass | E2323 · 2026-08-11maybe the reason it might have sold off also is that the full-year forecast— FedEx guided for 11% revenue growth and earnings per share from, uh, $16.90 to $18.10. In comparison to Wall Street estimates, at first glance that seemed like a mixed set of numbers. Slightly better than expected revenue, worse than expected earnings. But that's wrong too. It wasn't mixed at all. See, with the FedEx Freight spinoff, legacy FedEx decided to transition from the old— its old calendar year where it was a fiscal year ends in May to a standard calendar year. Okay. The kind that ends in December. So, you know, you have these two different kinds of count. You have a calendar year and you have a fiscal year and they've merged them to the right way, which is the way you and I think, which is January, December. So even though that was telegraphed, I think it created a lot of confusion for investors because the so-called consensus estimates included a lot of figures that were based on the old fiscal calendar. That's not apples to apples. Plus, don't forget, the FedEx is famously conservative with its guidance. When management first introduced their forecast for fiscal 2026, the 12-month period that just ended in May, they were initially guiding for $17.20 to $19 of earnings per share. Turns out that was a super lowball forecast, as in reality FedEx earned $20.24 per share. So I'm not sweating either of the things that investors seem to be taking issue with. FedEx reported last month. I still think the company is just in the best position I've seen in ages. Strong overall demand, tremendous cost initiatives. The stock trades at less than 18 times the midpoint of management's full year earnings forecast. Take and share, take and names. History's any guide. That forecast is too low. Long story short, I'm as bullish on FedEx as ever. I think it's house of pleasure. Now let's talk about FedEx Freight, which had really had the more dramatic pullback. The stock had a hot start coming from around $150 to close on June 1st. That's the stock's first day of regular way trading after the spinoff. All the way up to $194 and change on June 9th. That was rapid. Since then, though, FedEx Freight has given up all those gains and then some, falling to $143 today. At this point, the stock's down 26% from the high set about a month ago. So I thought it was a good time to do this piece. Just like with FedEx, though, I'm not worried. FedEx Freight's been getting slammed because this is what happens right after this kind of corporate breakup. FedEx gave you all the shareholders a chunk of FedEx Freight, right? So you're a FedEx shareholder. Suddenly you get this FedEx Freight and you don't know what it is. You just say, oh, I don't need this little thing, and you throw it away. It costs you causes a temporary beatdown. Let me give you some examples. When a company I really like, Solstice Advanced Materials, was spun out of Honeywell last fall, the stock initially fell from $53 on the first day of regular way trading down to $40 and change a few weeks later. Then Solstice found some traction, embarked on a fantastic rally, climbing all the way to $90 and change in recent weeks before plummeting back to the $60s after we learned they're acquiring Element Solutions. But that was wrong. It's good. Good deal. The market seemed to hate it. I disagree. But even after the recent decline, Solstice is still up huge from that low. Or how about an example that's a little closer to home? At the beginning of this year, Comcast spun off its cable channels, including CNBC, as Versant Media. Versant fell from $45 on the day of the spinoff down to $27 in mid-February. But then the stock found its footing. Now it's back to $36. I can't express opinion about the stock of my parent company. I'm just citing this as an example of post-spin-off blues like the ones that FedEx Freight shareholders have experienced. Now, FedEx Freight's now experiencing, I'd say, what I think is a level where it reminds me very much of a reversing bottom. Doesn't help that when the company reported on June 25th, though, the numbers were quirky. That's the word I'm searching for. And the stock fell nearly 3% the next day. Quirky because I don't want to be too— I want to be a little more subjective about this. See, FedEx Freight offered limited numbers in its first report as a public company. There were no earnings per share figure. But what we did was get at least pretty solid, I thought, FedEx Freight reporting a revenue beat as sales grew nearly 5% year over year, small operating income beat even as their operating margin was light versus expectations. That did hurt. Remember, we saw the same problem with FedEx original. It was again that fuel charge and put artificial pressure on the margin numbers. Making things worse, FedEx Freight also gave odd guidance. Like their old parent company, they moved from a fiscal year ending in May to a standard calendar year. Now they're in a transition period, the 7 months from June through December, because their fiscal 2026 is over. But the new calendar doesn't go till 2027 in January. I know it's so— it's confusing as all get out. I know that analysts aren't really programmed to receive guidance for 7-month periods. So the numbers weren't comparable. Again, not apples to apples. For what it's worth, FedEx Freight is guiding for 4 to 6% revenue growth for the transition period, and it expects an adjusted operating margin of 11.5 to 12%, up slightly from the year before. It looked fine enough to me, but it was really confusing. When I made the call to hold on to FedEx Freight for the Travel Trust at our monthly club meeting after the spinoff, I wasn't really thinking about what the just completed quarter would look like, or whether the guidance for the next 7 months will be better or worse than expected. My thesis is much more simple and much longer term. FedEx Freight is instantly the largest player in the less-than-truckload market, which is an attractive one as the freight business comes out of a multi-year bear market with much less capacity. Kind of like what happened to the airlines. I think FedEx Freight also benefits from being an independent company with dedicated management. They can think solely about how to improve service and grow the business rather than being buried within a larger entity where its profitability was not a priority. That's why I want to own this one for the long haul. Here's the bottom line. While FedEx and FedEx Freight have pulled back over the past few weeks, I'm viewing these declines as buying opportunities. I still like FedEx as much as ever. Thought it was a great opportunity midday today. And as for FedEx Freight, we're mostly dealing with the standard post-spinoff weakness with a dash of confusion stemming from that confusing earnings report and the change in calendar. In both cases, that confusion makes it so you've got a huge opportunity to buy, and that's precisely the advice that I'm giving to members of the CMEC Investing Club.
Jim Cramer — Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer · Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 7/8/26 · 2026-07-08Just looking at how these stocks have performed since the Baby Steps spinoff, i.e., Versant Media, uh, Comcast itself is down nearly 15% since that happened, and Versant is down nearly 25%. Now, my understanding was the idea is that when you're, when you're sort of conglomerate, you pay this what we kind of call the conglomerate tax, which is all of the sexier properties get lumped in with the unsexy properties. And if you can separate those out, then maybe you get a more attractive multiple on one or the other stocks. The stocks have both gone down. So I guess my question is, why do they think this will work, or are they just sort of crossing their fingers?
Ed Elson — Prof G Markets · Chip Stocks Are On Fire — Will It Last? · 2026-07-01Breakups, buyouts, and selling stocks. All this and more on today's Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm Jon Quast, and I'm joined today by Foolish contributors Matt Frankel and Rachel Warren. Today we're talking about a shakeup in outer space, as well as taking a listener question about selling stocks. But first, we got to talk about Comcast because it's breaking up. Now, in January, it already spun off its TV channels and some internet properties, CNBC, Golf, Rotten Tomatoes. It spun those off into Versant Media Group, ticker symbol VSNT. But now Comcast is coming back here for round 2, announcing it will spin off NBCUniversal, which contains a lot more than just, you know, the channel NBC. Now, as I zoom out here, KongPass stock down about 30% over the past year prior to this announcement. And one announcement here sending the stock up 20% pre-market, up about 10% now. So the market is giving it roughly $10 to $15 billion more in market cap just for announcing this move. And that is an absolutely massive swing. Were investors really punishing this stock so much because it was a conglomerate?
Jon Quast — Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing · Rocket Lab Shakes Up Satellite Communications · 2026-06-29John Just months after shedding most of its cable TV business into Versant Media, they're now again separating into two separate companies. One is going to house the namesake cable and tech operations. The other will compromise the NBC comprise the NBC Universal and Sky Media business. But Comcast shareholders are going to own shares in both Comcast and NBCUniversal. Comcast intends to establish a strong investment grade balance sheet for each of the businesses. So that would provide Comcast and NBC Universal with significant financial flexibility to pursue their prospective growth strategies. Mike Kavanaugh, he's going to be the CEO of NBCUniversal and Comcast. Former CFO Michael Angelikos is going to become the CEO of Comcast. In New York, I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg
John Tucker — Bloomberg News Now · Trump Says Iran Meeting Planned, Comcast Spin Off, More · 2026-06-29