Mediacom Gets Back on Track

By: By Staff May 26 2007 - 12:00am

Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce raised his rating on Mediacom Communications to “buy” from “hold,” increasing his 12-month price target to $10.50 from $8.50.

Mediacom, which has lost several thousand subscribers over the past few years to hurricanes and a bitter public battle with Sinclair Broadcast Group over retransmission consent — it settled the dispute in early February — appears to be on track to meet Joyce’s revenue and cash flow growth estimates for the second quarter.

Joyce estimates second-quarter revenue should grow 6.6% to $322 million and cash flow should rise 5.3% to $212 million, but added that he expects 12% to 13% cash-flow growth in the second half of the year as Mediacom “moves further away from its now-resolved broadcast retransmission-fee issues.”

He also estimates Mediacom will add about 3,000 basic-video subscribers in the second quarter, 26,000 digital subscribers, 33,000 high-speed Internet customers and 33,000 voice subscribers.