Wachovia Capital Markets said it conducted a series of tests on broadcast corporate governance policies.
"Corporate governance tends to be more scrutinized for companies and sectors that underperform the market than for those that don't," wrote analyst Marci L. Ryvicker. Since broadcast stocks have underperformed the S&P by 20 percent since 2003, she said, they fit this description well. The analysts used proxy statements from 2001-2005 to determine which publicly traded companies had the best and worst corporate governance policies.
The highest scores were logged by Entravision and Gray Television, followed by Cox Radio, Entercom, Saga Communications and Lin TV.
The worst performers of the group were Citadel, Cumulus, Emmis and Lamar Advertising.
Better corporate governance, Wachovia believes, could equate to an average "upside potential" in stock prices of around 25 percent. "While the impact of corporate governance on stock price performance is subjective, we believe there is potential upside of approximately 25 percent, on average, should the broadcast groups improve their corporate governance practices."
(Radio World)
