comScore (SCOR) Clears Hart-Scott-Rodino Hurdle in Rentrak Acquisition; Needham & Company Reiterates Buy

Needham & Company reiterated a Buy rating and $66.00 price target on comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) after spending time with management. The Rentrak acquisition cleared the Hart-Scott-Rodino hurdle, implying a January 2016 closing date. Needham is optimistic about valuation multiple upside and earnings over-delivery potential in 2016, thanks to synergies at the combined companies.

Analyst Laura Martin commented, "comScore’s acquisition of Rentrak cleared the Hart-Scott-Rodino hurdle yesterday, implying a January 2016 closing date. We had the opportunity to spend time last week with SCOR management and RENT management, and we are more optimistic about valuation multiple upside and earnings over-delivery potential in 2016, thanks to synergies at the combined companies. We believe the market is underestimating the revenue and cost synergies of the merger in 2016. (see Figure 9). We believe the implied valuation multiples of the PF combined company are below SCOR stand-alone multiples, even though the PF revenue growth rate will nearly double to 24% in 2016, and its EBITDA margins will be higher at 27% (vs SCOR’s 25% margins), thanks to both revenue and cost synergies realized in 2016. We retain our $66 target price and BUY rating."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on comScore click here. For more ratings news on comScore click here.

Shares of comScore closed at $40.94 yesterday.

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