WWE Shares Cut At Wolfe Research As Signs ‘Signal Stress’

World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) was cut to Peer Perform from Outperform by Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino on Monday evening.

The analyst downgraded the stock, ahead of a potential sale, without a price target, telling investors in a research note that Vince McMahon's return to oversee the 2025 TV rights renewal & potential sale of WWE “pushed the stock to the low end of our takeout range.”

In addition, Stephanie McMahon's resignation and board resistance to Vince McMahon's return “signal stress,” contends the firm. Wolfe sees “significant risk to the process” of a potential sale.

In addition, the analyst wrote that Stephanie McMahon's resignation and the WWE Board's resistance to Vince's return “signal stress.”

WWE shares are up over 23% this year as rumours of a potential takeover fuelled a rise in the stock. Early in January, Vince McMahon returned to the company's board of directors in order to oversee potential sale talks ahead of the WWE's media rights renewal.

Earlier this month, Mr McMahon, WWE's Founder and Executive Chairman, said: “WWE's upcoming media rights cycle will take place amid a rapidly evolving media and entertainment landscape, and we believe exploring our strategic alternatives at this critical juncture will enable WWE to fully capitalize on the significant value of our intellectual property.”

In a research note, a few days after that announcement, Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall upgraded WWE shares to Equal Weight from Underweight. He was quoted in TheFly as saying that he is capitulating and that his previous negative thesis regarding WWE’s TV rights renewals is moot as a result of the company’s strategic process.